LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 







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Chap. ., Copyright No... 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




Robert R. McBurney 
1897 



ROBERT R McBURNEY 



A 
MEMORIAL 






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1837-1898 



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55951 



Copyrighted 1899 

by 

The International Committee of Young" Men's 

Christian Associations 



•EOOHB copy. 



CONTENTS 



Sketch 


5 


Address by Right Rev. Henry C. Potter, LL 


. D. 37 


11 William E. Dodge 


42 


" William W. Hoppin 


48 


11 Richard C. Morse . 


52 


" Hon. Elihu Root . 


6t 


" Cephas Brainerd . 


62 


Memorial 


70 


Cablegrams and other testimonies . 


73 


Resolutions 


100 



ROBERT R. McBURNEY 



A Sketch 
by 

Richard C. Morse 



I. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH, 1837-1854. 

Robert Ross McBurney was born March 
thirty-first, 1837, at Castleblayney, a small 
market town in County Monaghan, in the 
north of Ireland. His father, a popular phy- 
sician with a large practice, was an active 
member and officer in the leading Presbyterian 
church of Castleblayney. Robert's mother, an 
ardent Methodist, was connected with a small 
Wesleyan chapel near their home. Both pa- 
rents were devout and active Christians. Very 
early in his life the boy responded to the reli- 
gious teaching of his mother and father. He 
often recalled vividly his conversion at the age 
of twelve years. In the light of his future life 
work we learn with peculiar interest that, while 
he regularly accompanied his parents to the 
Presbyterian church services and attended the 
Sunday-school, at another hour on each Lord's 
day he was to be found in the Wesleyan Sun- 
day-school. This double attendance at Sunday- 
school indicated his early interest in the Bible 
and its teachings. 



His education at school was limited to the 
facilities furnished in his native town. But he 
was not as a child fond of books, and though 
offered by his father the opportunity of a col- 
lege course, he preferred a speedier entrance 
upon active life and self-support. His early 
familiarity with the Scriptures, however, and 
love for their study, and for good hymns, in which 
he always delighted, proved admirable ground- 
work for that liberal education which in later 
years, as he was busy with his life work, he so 
thoroughly wrought out for himself. As a boy, 
too, he showed that strong, conscientious adher- 
ence to what he conceived to be right which 
ever after characterized him. He fearlessly 
took his stand among those of his own age 
against indulgence in questionable amusements. 
On one occasion, having serious scruples about 
himself attending such a place of amusement 
when solicited to do so by one of his own rela- 
tives who had a just claim on his attention, he 
courteously consented to be her escort to the 
door but did not go further. He was faithful 
to his obligation as a gentleman, but true to his 
conviction of duty as a Christian. 

His ministry to the sick and distressed also 
began in his boyhood. Dr. McBurney, in addi- 
tion to his practice as a physician, kept open a 
dispensary. Robert became familiar with the 
various drugs and remedies, and in emergencies 
during his father's frequent and necessary 

6 



absences the boy was able to respond intelligently 
to many calls for help, and thus early learned 
to sympathize with and minister to the suffer- 
ing. On market days the town was often the 
scene of disorder and drunkenness, and in car- 
ing for many a victim of drink and fighting he 
learned as a boy that hatred for the sin and 
that loving solicitude for the sinner which so 
strongly characterized him in his life work. 

It was during his boyhood that he met with 
saddest bereavement in the death of his devout 
and loving mother. When he was seventeen 
years old he left his home and native country 
to make a beginning of business life in the 
great far away city of the new world. 

II. BEGINNING OF LIFE AND WORK IN NEW YORK 
CITY, 1854-1862. 

On his arrival in New York, during the sum- 
mer of 1854, he was met by one of his teachers 
at Castleblayney who had preceded him in com- 
ing to this country, and who, on the evening of 
his first day in the city, introduced him to the 
fellowship and to the rooms of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, then located on 
the second floor of the Stuyvesant Institute, 
at No. 659 Broadway. He soon entered the 
employ of a hat manufacturer, and there 
learned his trade. Making choice of the church 
of his mother, he promptly joined the Mulberry 



Street Methodist Episcopal church, since known 
as St. Paul's church, and began to attend the 
Sunday-school. He also became interested in 
a Wednesday night prayer meeting which was 
started in the Dutch Reformed church in Ful- 
ton street, and helped to put cards in store 
windows advertising the meeting. During the 
following eight years (1854-1861) he continued 
at his trade and in as active connection with 
church, Sunday-school and the Young Men's 
Christian Association as a very quiet and 
almost painfully diffident young man could be. 

The New York association had been organ- 
ized in 1852. During this first decade of its 
life, though naturally regarded by most as a 
doubtful experiment, it embraced in its mem- 
bership a group of junior merchants and pro- 
fessional men who have since proved to be men 
of remarkable ability. No correct account of 
the growth of the association movement in 
New York city and on the American continent 
can be given without reckoning with the ex- 
traordinary capacity and influence of some of 
the men composing this group.* The same 



*As belonging to this group may be mentioned, among those 
who have died, Howard Crosby, Elbert B. Monroe, C. R. Agnew, 
William F. Lee, Austin Abbott, Edward Atisten, Edward Colgate, 
Samuel Colgate, A. D. F. Randolph, S. W. Stebbins, Charles 
Scribner, Elliott F. Shepard, John B. Trevor, John Crerar, A. S. 
Barnes, Peter Carter, Harvey Fisk, Henry B. Hyde. 

Among the living, William E. Dodge, Morris K. Jesup, Cephas 
Brainerd, James Stokes, William W. Hoppin, John Crosby Brown, 



ability which has since brought them to the 
front in their various callings then showed 
itself in the formation and development of the 
New York association, with its novel organi- 
zation, work and methods. It was also seen in 
their advocacy of this work in successive con- 
ventions of delegates representing the entire 
continent. Here they were ultimately assigned 
by their fellow delegates such a leadership in 
the supervision and extension of the organiza- 
tion that the form of its work, as wrought out 
in New York, has been substantially repro- 
duced in the other cities of the continent. Mr. 
McBurney's position in this group at the begin- 
ning and for the first eight years was, as we 
have seen, that of a volunteer and very diffident 
worker. 

At the end of this period he was thrown out 
of employment by the closing of the establish- 
ment in which he had been at work. Provi- 
dentially at this time the association was with- 
out any one in charge of its rooms as caretaker 
or librarian, and Mr. McBurney was asked to 
take the position temporarily. The temporary 
character of the arrangement, and the condition 
of the association treasury are discernible in the 
fact that the weekly compensation agreed upon 



W. Harman Brown, D. Willis James, J. Pierpont Morgan, Ver- 
ramis Morse, Timothy G. Sellew, Charles E. Whitehead, L. 
Bolton Bangs, John S. Bussing, Charles Lanier, John E. Parsons, 
John S. Kennedy, Benjamin Lord, Richard C. McCormick, A. A. 
Raven, John Sloane, Ralph Wells, James B. Colgate, Bowles 
Colgate, Jacob F. Wyckoff , Caleb B. Knerals, S. G. Goodrich. 



was five dollars, and he was confronted with the 
information that the gas had been shut off for 
six months and that the rent for the same 
period was unpaid. 

III. FIRST TEN YEARS AS EMPLOYED OFFICER OF 
THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION, 1862-1871. 

His first official act on beginning his new 
duties, July eleventh, 1862, was to sweep out 
and arrange the small rooms of the association, 
then located in the Bible House. Soon after- 
ward, during a holiday a young man wandered 
into the rooms, a stranger, as Mr. McBurney 
himself has been eight years before on his 
arrival in the city. Before that holiday closed 
the new officer had the joy of leading the young 
man to faith in Jesus Christ. It was this gra- 
cious incident that led him to resolve to devote 
his life to Christian work. But whether the 
employed officer of the association could find in 
that office a life work, seemed questionable in 
that infant period of the organization. For 
several succeeding years the office and officer, 
the organization, its members and leaders, grew 
together in the development of the work, and 
in the fuller understanding of its object and 
methods. Early in this period (1862-1871) Mr. 
McBurney was so distrustful of himself and of 
his qualification for the new office that he left it 
and the city for a short time. But soon after 
his return to New York he was recalled by the 
association. He accepted, refusing however 



an increase of salary, which had been offered to 
him as one inducement to return. 

/. The Parent Association Building. 

During this period the association moved into 
better quarters, and the conception was gradu- 
ally formed of the building erected (1864-1869) 
on the corner of Fourth avenue and Twenty- 
third street — the first structure ever carefully 
planned and built to accommodate what has 
since become familiarly known as the distinc- 
tive, all-round work of the association, physical, 
intellectual, social, and spiritual. 

Its originators and promoters had, to use the 
words of their leader and president, ' ' the idea 
that if a building could be erected answering 
to a club house for young men, with every- 
thing in it calculated to exert a cheering and 
brotherly influence, where they could grasp 
a friendly hand when they came in, and where 
gymnasiums and music and classes for study 
were to be found as well as religious and Bible 
meetings, an influence would thus be exerted 
upon these young men that would hold and 
gradually mold them until their habits were 
fixed in the right direction/' The idea was a 
novel and attractive one. But the leaders were 
men of large and wise hopefulness, as well as of 
rare ability. 

The extended work contemplated in the plan 
and appointments of the building called for a 
change in the constitution, and in seeking from 



the legislature a special charter, at the sugges- 
tion of the president, the word "physical" was 
added to the definition of the object of the 
association, causing it to read, as amended: 
"The improvement of the spiritual, mental, 
social, and physical condition of young men." 
This was the first association constitution so 
altered and enlarged. 

The building committee consisted of Messrs. 
William E. Dodge, Cephas Brainerd, J. Pier- 
pont Morgan, Abner W. Colgate, and R. R. 
McBurney. All his associates on this committee 
survive Mr. McBurney. 

The new building called for what was then 
deemed the enormous sum of half a million 
dollars. But the faith, energy, and capacity of 
the young men associated in this undertaking 
were equal to the emergency. Theirs was a 
faith which confidently sought to realize a 
broader and more comprehensive work for 
young men than had yet been attempted. In 
their planning and discussions they were not 
only shaping this new work and a new type of 
building to accommodate it, but they were also 
exerting a molding influence upon that one of 
their number who was to give the entire enthu- 
siasm of his life and the energy of every faculty 
to this work. Mr. McBurney proved equal to 
the opportunity given him. As the responsible 
employed officer of the association he performed 



his part in administration and organization. 
The officers and directors cooperated vigilantly 
in every department. The large building was 
occupied and filled with a work and workers 
which proved a marvelous blessing to the young 
men of New York not only, but of many other 
cities also. 

Three hundred and fifty association buildings 
have since been erected on this continent, cost- 
ing over twenty million dollars. Many have 
also been erected on other continents, but all 
the best of them are modeled after this original 
building. There are certainly few, if any, 
structures in the capital city of the new world 
of which this can be truthfully said. In the 
planning and erection of these succeeding struc- 
tures Mr. McBurney was often carefully con- 
sulted by architect and association secretary. 
Many improvements, suggested by experience, 
were introduced. But the type remained unal- 
tered. One of the latest of these buildings, 
embodying all of improvement that had been 
realized, was erected in the year just preceding 
his last illness under Mr. McBurney's own eye, 
at a cost of half a million dollars, for the West Side 
branch of the New York association. Building 
and equipment in every detail bear the evidence 
of his long experience, ripened by successful 
association administration and leadership, dur- 
ing the twenty-seven years' interval between 
the completion and dedication of these two 
buildings. 

13 



Such was the strong shaping influence exerted 
within the association movement by those who 
planned and wrought in this initial building. 
It would be equally interesting to trace the 
corresponding influence which the three hun- 
dred of its type have slowly exerted, during 
the last thirty years, upon ecclesiastical and 
other Christian architecture — an influence 
showing itself in the varied forms of church 
houses and in other peculiar features of institu- 
tional churches. 

With the erection of the Twenty-third street 
building, in 1869, it may be justly said that the 
leadership of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation movement passed to the New York 
association. The growth of the movement since 
then, and its extension, first in each association 
to the whole man, body, mind, and spirit, and 
then throughout the brotherhood to various 
classes of young men in cities and towns, in 
colleges and schools, in railroad and other 
industries, in the army and navy, and in for- 
eign mission lands, can be traced directly to 
influences centering in New York, as the 
radiating point whence efficiency, training and 
development have come. 

2. A leader in the International Organization. 

During this critical formative period (1862- 
1872) Mr. McBurney, joining a few prominent 
members of the New York association, began 
in 1865 his steady attendance upon the inter- 

14 



national conventions, and performed well his 
part as one of the convention leaders in shap- 
ing the work and mission of that representative 
assembly of the associations: (1) By the estab- 
lishment of its executive committee in New 
York City; (2) by the calling of state conven- 
tions, and the formation of state organizations; 
(3) by the appointment of the day and week of 
prayer for young men in November; (4) by 
adopting the evangelical basis of membership, 
which has proved so effective in maintaining 
the fellowship of the churches with the associa- 
tions ; (5) by the suggestion and consideration 
in successive conventions of the various phases 
of this work for young men which the best 
experience of the best associations pointed out 
as of vital importance. In all this relation to 
the international convention and committee 
he acted as one of the strong group of delegates 
from New York, who were indispensable lead- 
ers in planning the work and accomplishing 
the results which have been mentioned. 

j. Father of the State Work of New York. 

During this early period also, as correspond- 
ing member for New York state of the inter- 
national committee, he became the founder and 
father of the New York state organization. 
Here, in the convention of 1867, almost single 
handed, he secured through patient discusssion 
in a protracted session the adoption of the 
evangelical basis, which in the following year 

15 



was also adopted for the entire American broth- 
erhood by the international convention at 
Detroit, and further defined and ratified by the 
Portland convention of 1869. Three times dur- 
ing the early period of the New York state con- 
vention he was chosen its president. 

His vigilant care and interest were shown in 
the choice of an efficient state secretary and in 
helpful cooperation with him. On the floor of 
the state convention he continued to the end 
of his life the strongest, most experienced and 
influential delegate. Here, as in his many other 
relationships, he proved himself to be in a 
rare way both conservative and progressive ; 
often slow to be convinced, yet always giving 
wise direction to conclusions reached and action 
proposed. On the other hand, he often led 
boldly in originating new measures and in 
carrying them out successfully. 

Coming to the close of this eventful period of 
beginnings, so full of evidence, as we now see, 
of his qualification for the longer and larger 
work that lay before him, it seems to us surpris- 
ing that his mind was not yet fully settled upon 
a life continuance in the secretaryship. But the 
future of the association movement, which is 
now understood so clearly, was then dimly dis- 
cerned and vaguely appreciated. It was in the 
year 1869, when the new association building 
was approaching completion, that he expressed 
his serious thought of studying for the ministry, 

16 




■-■■'■'■W*^-*''' 



Robert R. McBurney 
1867 



on the ground that in the secretaryship there 
was not to be found a calling and work for life. 
Soon he would be too old, he thought, to be 
attractive to young men, and his secretarial 
usefulness would cease. Such a conviction was 
held then and for years later, and is, indeed, 
held to-day by not a few of the strong men in 
the work. If the association was in its youth at 
this time, its executive office was in its very 
infancy. 

Later definite offer came to him of a secre- 
taryship in one of the leading interdenomina- 
tional societies of the country, with a salary 
much larger than he ever received in the asso- 
ciation work. But now the call could not divert 
him from the ministry to young men, which had 
become his settled life choice. 

4.. Leader of the General Secretaries' Conference. 

The Young Men's Christian Associations 
were certainly slow in coming to the conscious- 
ness of their need of employed executive officers, 
and of the importance of defining their distinc- 
tive work, and of training well selected men for 
it. One indication of this is seen in the fact 
that while the societies had for nearly twenty 
years been meeting for helpful conference by 
their representatives, no meeting of their 
employed officers for this needful purpose 
occurred until the year 1871. 

When these officers began to meet in that year 

17 



barely a dozen were present. No two bore the 
same title. The name of general secretary was 
adopted at the meeting, and slowly came into 
use in the following decade. Of the dozen 
men Mr. McBurney was the only one repre- 
senting the fourfold all-round work for young 
men carried on in a large, well-appointed build- 
ing specially erected for the purpose. He was 
also the only one who was a guide in both 
international and state organizations. This 
gave him exceptional qualification to be in 
these secretarial conferences both a guide and 
teacher of his associates. He performed this 
useful office for the most part very quietly and 
unobtrusively, working chiefly through others 
and putting them forward. As the younger 
secretaries began to be in the majority he earned 
and bore among them the title of Father Mc- 
Burney. The number of employed officers in at- 
tendance steadily increased from year to year : — 



In 1873 . 


. 54 


In 1879 . 


141 


In 1874 . 


• 77 


In 1880 . . 


178 


In 1875 . 


• 93 


In 1881 . 


. 210 


In 1876 . 


. 108 


In 1882 . 


255 


In 1877 . 


. 114 


In 1883 . 


- 34i 


In 1878 . 


• 114 


In 1884 . 


. 388 



For more than ten years this conference, in 
connection with the international committee's 
secretarial bureau of information and instruc- 
tion, constituted the best agency for the discov- 
ery and training of association secretaries. The 
international and state secretaries cooperated to 

18 



increase its efficiency. Strong local secretaries 
were developed, coming into contact with what 
Mr. McBurney had wrought out as the pioneer 
among them. Clever, consecrated men were 
gradually secured in cities large and small. 
Each brought in turn his contribution to secre- 
tarial efficiency. In this annual conference 
they became a secretarial brotherhood in a 
gracious, helpful relation to one another. At 
the beginning, when they numbered barely a 
dozen, Mr. McBurney was easily first in expe- 
rience and capacity to lead and teach; and at 
the end, when over one thousand names were 
on the roll, he was as easily the foremost man of 
the brotherhood. 

In 1872 he was one of four American dele- 
gates who attended, in Amsterdam, Holland, 
the triennial meeting of the World's Conference 
of the associations. He attended every subse- 
quent meeting save that of 1875 — namely, those 
in 1878, 1881, 1884, 1888, 1891 and 1894. The 
conference of 1898 sent to his bedside in the 
hospital in New York a greeting full of sympa- 
thy and affection, and with assurance from 
delegates representing twenty-one nations that 
his absence was lovingly lamented. 

Thus he passed the first decade (1862-1871) 
of his secretaryship, actively and successfully 
employed in a rapidly growing work by and for 
young men in New York city, accommodated 

19 



in a well equipped building. He was also a 
leader in the American international and state 
committees, in the secretaries' conference and 
institute, and was beginning to exert an influ- 
ence in the counsels of the World's Conference. 

IV. SECOND PERIOD OF HIS SECRETARIAL LIFE 
AND WORK, 1872-1898. 

The following twenty-six years of incessant 
but never wearying service witnessed also an 
equally incessant enlargement of all his varied 
activity. In the New York association the 
work was widened in two directions — (1) by 
the organization of branches and the erection 
of branch buildings in different parts of the 
city; (2) by the organization of branches com- 
posed of different classes of young men, 
namely, students, railroad men and German 
speaking and French speaking young men. 
Each call for enlargement had an origin and 
history more or less peculiar to itself. To each 
call and its advocate Mr. McBurney gave hos- 
pitable attention. In responding to each he 
brought valuable contribution of counsel and 
suggestion. He domesticated each branch in 
the plan and scope of the association work. 

In the midst of this period, at a reception 
given to Mr. McBurney in 1887, on his fiftieth 
birthday, Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby said: "It 
is an unalloyed joy to express the deep feeling 
of so many hearts in speaking to our beloved 

20 



friend McBurney. I am compelled to put some 
control over my feelings lest my language might 
be deemed superlative. I have watched our 
friend all these years of a quarter of a century 
during which he has been the official repre- 
sentative of this magnificent institution, the 
very centre of its influence, one of the main- 
springs of its life. He has identified himself 
with the cause of the young man in its highest 
expression with a sympathy and a wisdom 
which have been both untiring and unexcelled. 
He has remained himself a young man all these 
years. I deeply feel that our city and our 
whole land are indebted to our dear brother for 
these wonderful twenty-five years. Always in 
his place, always cheerful, always attending to 
duty seven days of every week, and often fifty- 
two weeks in every year; never weary of the 
applications pressed incessantly upon him, 
always multiplying friends — these have been 
his characteristics. I believe that such a life is 
the most useful of all lives — an example most 
precious to our young men. I know of no pas- 
tor of any church in this city whose ministry 
has been so useful and extended. What part of 
the country does not know him? And what part 
of the country does not know him through the 
goodly influence he has exerted ? He is there- 
fore a national man, quiet in his personal life 
and yet felt throughout the whole country, our 
young men everywhere recognizing him as a 
guide and an example." 



21 



Mr. Elbert B. Monroe, then president of the 
association, tendered congratulations, saying: 
"We do not come here with any idea that Mr. 
McBurney is old. We believe in him as a 
young man, with the young man's sympathy 
added to the calm judgment which can do 
young men good. That he has been saved to 
us all for this time we thank God, and pray 
that for many years to come he may be saved 
to us." 

Mr. William E. Dodge, in a happy brief 
address, presented Mr. McBurney with a hand- 
some velvet bag of gold eagles for the purchase 
of books for his library, especially for its bibli- 
cal department — an eagle for each of the fifty 
years that were past and thirty-five more for 
the additional years of still more useful service 
to which his friends looked forward. Accom- 
panying the gift was an envelope containing 
" 'pinions from some eagles," being anonymous 
extracts from letters which had come from 
friends who had taken part in the bestowal of 
this gift. 

/. The Metropolitan Organization formed. 

In this year 1887, the multiplication of the 
branches of the association called for some ad- 
ministrative change. The board of directors and 
the general secretary had been responsible up to 
this time to administer every detail of the work 
in the Twenty-third street building, and also 
to supervise the various branches throughout 



the city. The time had certainly come to re- 
lease the board and its secretary from special 
supervision of the central building. After care- 
ful thought and study, at the suggestion and 
under the presidency of Mr. Elbert B. Monroe, 
the present metropolitan organization was 
formed. Mr. McBurney was thus relieved from 
the double service he had been rendering, as 
general secretary of the whole work in the 
city, and as secretary at the central building. 
He now became metropolitan secretary, hold- 
ing an equal relation to every branch, over the 
organization and growth of each of which he 
had presided. And he was free during the last 
ten crowning years of his service to devote 
himself to perfecting and unifying the entire 
work. 

2. Celebration of his fifty-third Birthday, 

In the year 1890, on his fifty-third birthday 
(March thirty-first), Mr. McBurney persuaded 
himself for the first and only time in his life to 
give a dinner to a large company of friends. 
He selected as his birthday guests the hundred 
employees of the New York City association, 
and as he issued the invitations was vividly 
reminded of the period, nearly forty years before, 
when he was the only employee of the associa- 
tion, and was receiving as small compensation 
as any one then on the long roll of this ramified 
metropolitan organization. He invited also the 
president and a few of the officers and directors 

23 



of the association and its branches. Fifty-eight 
employees were able to respond favorably, and 
gathered about his table at Clark's restaurant 
on Twenty-third street. Every class was repre- 
sented, including messenger boys, cleaners, 
engineers, janitors, physical directors, librarians, 
secretaries, and assistants of all kinds. 

Interesting reminiscences were given by vari- 
ous speakers, and the responsibilities resting 
upon everyone employed in the work were faith- 
fully presented. Addresses were made by 
Messrs. Cleveland H. Dodge, president; Elbert 
B. Monroe, ex -president; Cephas Brain erd, 
senior member of the board of directors ; Wil- 
liam E. Dodge, chairman of the board of 
trustees; also by chairmen of four of the 
branches, by the branch secretary, librarian, 
and physical director longest in service; by 
William S. Brazier, for twenty-two years jani- 
tor of the Twenty-third street building, and by 
the engineer of the same building. 

It would be difficult to say whether host or 
guests most enjoyed this delightful festivity, so 
full of that affectionate hospitality and good 
fellowship which pervaded the life of the host 
in all his intercourse both with his guests and 
with the multitude of young men he was con- 
stantly entertaining. 

j. A Commemoration and a Retrospect in i8gj. 

The following table gives a summary view of 
this association growth in New York city, or, 

24 



as it is now called, the borough of Manhattan. 
It was prepared early in 1897, for the celebra- 
tion of Mr. McBurney's sixtieth birthday. At 
the dinner given him on this occasion Mr. Wil- 
liam E. Dodge presided. Appropriate addresses 
were made by the chairman, Reverend Dr. 
Theodore L. Cuyler, and Messrs. Cephas 
Brainerd, Elihu Root, and Richard C. Morse; 
and a portrait of Mr. McBurney, for which he 
had consented to sit at the request of a few 
friends, was presented to the association. 

1866 — April 2d, The Western Branch opened. 1872 — 
The Western becomes the Bowery Branch at 
134 Bowery. 1888 — The present building pur- 
chased. 

1868 — February, Harlem Branch opened. 1888 — Present 
building completed. 

1869 — December 23 d, Twenty-third street building com- 
pleted and opened. 

1872 — Yorkville, East 86th Street, Branch opened. 1885 
— Lot and property secured. 1 896 — Building in 
course of erection. 

1875 — Railroad Branch opened in Grand Central Depot 
1879 — Railroad Rooms opened at West Thirtieth 

street Depot. 
1886 — At Weehawken and New Durham. 
1887 — In Round House, West 72d Street. 
1887 — Railroad building, 361 Madison Avenue, 

opened. 
1893 — Railroad building doubled in size. 
1 8 91 — Mott Haven rooms opened. 

1 88 1 — German Branch organized. 
1884 — Building secured. 

25 



1889 — Building doubled by purchase of adjoining 

house. 
1896 — March, Building altered and reopened. 
1885 — Young Men's Institute building completed and 

opened. 
1887 — Present Metropolitan Organization effected. 
1888 — Athletic Grounds and Boat House leased. 
1889 — French Branch opened. 

Student work organized as "The Student Move- 
ment." 1894 — Building, 129 Lexington Avenue, 
purchased. 
1 89 1 — Washington Heights Branch opened. 

1892 — Washington Heights building secured. 
1896 — West Side building completed and opened. 

When Mr. McBurney became its employed execu- 
tive officer in 1862, the Association had 150 mem- 
bers, was occupying two small rented rooms, and 
expending in its work annually $1,700. Now 
with 7,309 members it carries on its work at fif- 
teen points, owns nine buildings valued at $2,- 
000,000, and expends annually in its diversified 
work $175,000. It employs forty-one secretaries 
and assistants. 

4.. Continued relation to International and State 
Organizations. 

While thus faithfully performing his New 
York secretarial work during these twenty-six 
years (1872-1898) he continued his active, influ- 
ential relation to the international convention 
and its committee, as this agency also was 
reaching out after various classes of young men. 

Though not himself a college graduate, no 
member of the committee was more sympa- 
thetic with the student work and its growth 

26 



throughout the country and the world. In the 
planting and growth of the student branch in 
his own city field he took the most vigilant 
interest, providing out of his own salary for 
some years the salary of the first student 
secretary of the New York association. In 
working out to a successful solution that most 
difficult problem of the student work, namely, 
its effective organization in the professional and 
higher schools of our great cities, what he 
accomplished in New York was an invaluable 
help to the association student brotherhood in 
other large cities of the continent. 

Equally, as a member of the international 
committee, he promoted the work among rail- 
road, colored, and other classes of young men. 
At the international conventions, where this 
ever- widening work was reported and its exten- 
sion authorized, he continued an influential 
leader in counsel and action. In the prepara- 
tion of the program of each convention his 
suggestions of both topics and speakers, grow- 
ing out of his touch with all parts of the work 
in their highest efficiency, deserved and obtained 
prevailing influence. 

When from missionaries on the foreign field 
urgent call came to the committee for associa- 
tion secretarial workers to establish the organi- 
zation at strategic points on that wide field, he 
warmly advocated a favorable response, and 
served as first chairman of the sub-committee 
on this foreign work. The first secretary who 

27 



went to that field had received his training as 
an assistant of Mr. McBurney in the office of 
the New York association. 

5. Growing interest in the Secretaryship and in 
training for it. 

In the secretaries' conference and its discus- 
sions he also continued during this period his 
helpful leadership. He discerned clearly when 
the time was ripe for secretarial training be- 
yond what could be furnished by this con- 
ference and by the secretarial bureau of the 
international committee, useful and necessary 
as both these agencies must ever continue to 
be. In the founding and building up of the 
secretarial training school at Springfield, Mass. , 
he exerted a parental influence as counselor of 
its founder and first president, and, later, of his 
successors. As a trustee from the beginning, 
he was indispensable to the wise administration 
of the institution. 

During his last sickness, while determining 
the provisions of his will, he expressed the 
desire to give one-fourth of his small estate to 
that department of association work which had 
most need of the gift. It is a striking indica- 
tion of his unselfish spirit, that though the New 
York association, its interests and work, had 
always the first place in his enthusiasm and 
affection, he concluded after careful delibera- 
tion that secretarial training had most need of 
his preference in the form of a bequest ; and the 

28 



fourth of his estate was willed to the school at 
Springfield. 

6. Literary and other Attainments. 

His ever-growing literary taste and attain- 
ment were shown in the gradual increase of his 
well-selected library. His collection of hymns 
— the department of poetry in which he took 
the greatest interest — was particularly full and 
interesting. The annual reports of the associa- 
tion, which he began to prepare in 1872, were 
the fruit of careful study. One of the leaders 
of the religious press, Dr. Edward Prime, said 
that they ranked among the very best presented 
by any of the religious societies; and he added, 
" No matter how excellent the speaking at the 
anniversary may be, I always find myself most 
interested in Mr. McBurney's report. " As 
editor of the New York Association Bulletin 
and Notes he showed the same literary capacity. 
He was a careful, painstaking collector of asso- 
ciation reports and literature, and for years his 
collection was the largest and most complete in 
existence. In these and other phases of his 
intellectual life he richly merited the honorary 
degree of Master of Arts conferred upon him 
by Hamilton College. 

His love of the Bible and his passion for its 
study grew steadily. The time set apart each 
week for preparation of the Bible lesson was 
more and more sacredly observed. No other 
engagements were allowed to interfere with it. 

29 



This study of the Bible was the fundamental 
thing in his intellectual growth and literary cul- 
ture. It determined the choice of the valuable 
biblical works which formed an important 
part of his library. It leavened his prayer life 
and his personal work in leading men to faith 
in Christ. As a teacher of the Bible to young 
men, his class became one of the strong factors 
in the religious work of the association. Young 
men dated from it their beginning and their 
growth in the Christian life. It became an 
object lesson to his fellow secretaries, from 
which they drew suggestion and inspiration. 

His longest absence from his desk (February- 
June, 1892) was spent in a tour of the Mediter- 
ranean. Its principal feature was a month's 
trip through Palestine, which he keenly appre- 
ciated and enjoyed. He ever after counted it 
of great value to him as a reader and student 
of the Bible, and it gave a new interest to his 
teaching. His companions on the trip will 
always remember the zest and eagerness he was 
ever manifesting in all that he saw. His quick 
eye caught, and his memory kept count of every 
new variety of flower, while the scenes of sacred 
story, and the truths and teachings of the book 
he delighted to study, were indelibly impressed 
upon his mind. 

7. Personal Traits, 

He was an ardent lover of sport in the woods, 
30 



and was an expert fisherman. The Catskill 
mountain region, and later that of the Adiron- 
dacks, was the goal of his plans for the few 
brief vacations he allowed himself. His library 
bears witness to his taste in this direction. 
Side by side with the large and well-selected 
alcove of hymns is to be found a remarkable 
collection of the various editions of Izaak 
Walton, comprising a specimen from at least 
seventy editions of that " Pilgrim's Progress" 
of the fisherman. He belonged to a group of 
friends, many of them prominent in both clergy 
and laity, who shared with him this fondness 
for life and sport in the woods. One of the few 
recreations he allowed himself was an occasional 
meeting with them. But as a rule he declined 
the many invitations he received to join in 
social life apart from the association. In one 
instance the invitation came from one of the 
leading social clubs of the city. But his life 
was so heartily surrendered to his one work 
day and night that he found no room in it for 
favorable reply to this and to a multitude of other 
calls to social recreation. 

The cheerfulness of his disposition and his 
keen enjoyment of the humorous made him 
very attractive to young men. He was always 
good company, and contributed his share of 
lively talk, quick repartee, apt anecdote and 
humorous incidents. He was fond of bric-a- 
brac and curios, and had a keen eye for the 
antique in furniture and architecture. He was 

31 



a good critic of works of art. His taste in all 
these lines was excellent, and his tower room 
and the association buildings in the erection 
and equipment of which he was most con- 
cerned give evidence of his capacity in these 
directions. 

8. At work outside the Association Brotherhood. 

While giving himself chiefly to work for young 
men, Mr. McBurney yielded to some of many 
solicitations to engage in other departments of 
Christian effort. As became a consistent gen- 
eral secretary, he was an active member of the 
church of his choice during his entire residence 
of forty years in New York, and served on its 
board of trustees and board of stewards. Begin- 
ning in 1867, he was one of the leading and 
most active members of the executive commit- 
tee of the Evangelical Alliance. 

He was one of the founders of the New York 
Christian Home for Intemperate Men, and a 
member of its board of directors from 1877 to 
1887; and his warm interest in its work con- 
tinued throughout his life. Probably no other 
friend of the institution during the same period 
directed so many unfortunate men to its care. 

He was a member of the managing boards 
of the American Tract Society, the Young 
Women's Christian Association, the Federation 
of Churches and Christian Workers in New 
York City, the Clerical Mutual Association, the 
New York Deaconess Home and Training 

32 



School of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
the Manhattan Working Girls' Club. 

He was a member of the Civil Service Re- 
form Association, and rendered special service 
to the Charity Organization Society and the 
New York Sunday-School Association. 

As has just been shown, he was widely valued 
and sought as a counselor by laymen and min- 
isters engaged in Christian and philanthropic 
enterprises, and often went beyond his physical 
strength in making favorable response. He 
was conservative in discerning obstacles and 
warning of their presence, but also progressive 
in estimating with good judgment the likeli- 
hood of success in new undertakings. He was 
suggestive to those seeking counsel, and par- 
ticularly happy in naming good candidates for 
the manning and leadership of worthy enter- 
prises. 

He was an enthusiastic American citizen. 
At the outbreak of the civil war he was exceed- 
ingly eager to enlist as a soldier, but a physical 
disability prevented his acceptance by the mili- 
tary authorities. This physical trouble was a 
tax upon his strength to the end of his life. 
Only his indomitable spirit prevented it from 
interfering with his incessant labors. 

He also showed his good citizenship by serv- 
ing faithfully as a juryman, and in his later 
years was greatly valued as a member of the 
grand jury of the city. 

33 



p. His Life Purpose. 

In reviewing the wide and varied range of his 
activities, the positions of trust he held, and his 
relationships to a world-wide work for young 
men, in which his influence was steadily and 
increasingly felt, it seems clear that he was a 
man of extraordinary ability. He possessed 
the capacity, talent, and arts of a statesman. 
He employed every faculty and talent most 
industriously. Like all men who discover in 
themselves superior capacity he was tempted to 
make selfish use of it. Because he successfully 
resisted and overcame the temptation, both his 
influence and usefulness in the Christian brother- 
hood to which he belonged steadily increased. 
For he continued to the end to give supreme 
attention to the unselfish labor of love which 
introduced him to his life work — the blessed 
work of leading young men, one by one, to 
faith and life in Jesus Christ. This he believed 
should be the controlling purpose and activity 
of the general secretary, and of the Christian 
believer. He showed this faith by his works. 
It was because he thus impersonated faithfully 
the loving, Christlike, unselfish motive of the 
association that he commanded increasingly 
confidence and cooperation in the administration 
of this work in New York and elsewhere. 

He highly appreciated necessary machinery 
and appliances. But he estimated these at their 
right value, and never gave them first place. 

34 



His heart and hand were not enlisted and busy- 
chiefly in organizing workers and conventions, 
appointing committees, constructing buildings 
and soliciting money. His best endeavor was 
given to the hand to hand, face to face work, 
wrought out only in personal intercourse, 
prayer, Bible study and teaching, and in all 
those quiet spiritual character-building activities 
which grow out of a living faith in Christ, as 
saviour unto the uttermost and friend beyond 
all others — activities which constitute the heart 
and life blood of the association work. His per- 
sonal influence thus exerted these many years 
upon the lives of young men, one by one, 
endeared him to a great multitude of them. 
Some of these are now honored and useful in 
business, professional, political, and church life. 
Many more in humbler station are making their 
influence felt for good, and all alike value him 
as a friend associated with what is best in their 
character, their lives, and their future. 

He believed that this discernment of the high- 
est welfare of men, and the loving desire to pro- 
mote it, came to him as a gift of grace from 
Jesus Christ, and was the work of the Holy 
Spirit in his heart. It had its origin, as far as 
he knew, in a life of prayer and study of the 
Scriptures, as the Word of God to him. He 
was an eminently devout man. Many who 
attended the meetings for prayer at the asso- 
ciation rooms, where Mr. McBurney often took 
part, made special mention of his prayers, as 

35 



full of spiritual help and comfort. The multi- 
tude of young men and of his fellow secretaries, 
to whom he ministered so helpfully, unite in 
bearing the same testimony. 

10. The Last Year. 

In September, 1897, Mr. McBurney left his 
desk in the general office of the board of 
directors to take temporary charge of the 
Twenty -third street branch until a secre- 
tary could be found for that important post. 
With characteristic energy he threw himself 
into the work, and went so far beyond the limit 
of his strength that in January, for the first 
time in all the years of his connection with the 
association, he could not prepare for and 
attend the anniversary meeting. He with- 
drew with a friend to Atlantic City for rest and 
recuperation. Returning still an invalid, he 
went for treatment on February fifteenth to the 
Presbyterian Hospital. He continued there for 
five months, submitting in April to a somewhat 
severe surgical operation. Early in August he 
went to the Adirondacks, and thence on Sep- 
tember twenty-first to Clifton Springs. But 
under the continued complications of his disease 
(multiple sarcoma), and in spite of all that the 
best medical skill could prescribe, he steadily 
grew feebler. It was graciously ordered that 
his last hours were free from pain. Early in 
the morning of his departure, with cheerful 
consciousness that the end was near, he said to 

36 



one of his physicians, "Almost home!" and at 
half-past three on the afternoon of December 
twenty-ninth he entered quietly and painlessly 
the home of eternal rest and peace prepared 
for him by the love of his Saviour. 

V. FUNERAL SERVICE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 

15, 1898. 

Following a wish often expressed by Mr. 
McBurney, the funeral service was held in Asso- 
ciation Hall, on the corner of Twenty-third 
street and Fourth avenue, and was of the sim- 
plest character. His pastor, Reverend George 
P. Eckman, Ph. D., of St. Paul's Methodist 
Episcopal church, presided. Very appropriate 
portions of Scripture were read by President M. 
Woolsey Stryker, D. D., of Hamilton College. 

Right Reverend Henry C. Potter, D. D., LL. 
D. , Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church 
in the diocese of New York, made the following 
address: — 

It is in such a presence as this that we read- 
just our standards of values. There is much in 
all our modern life, and especially in the life of 
cities, to confuse them. Externalisms — the 
proportions and the triumphs of the visible — 
create even in more serious minds an undue 
estimate of their value and meaning; and the 
type of man whose achievements are expressed 
by bulk and bigness, whether of structures, 
combinations or accumulations, is the type to 
which there is apt to be paid the largest and the 
loudest homage. 

37 



It is only when one of another type — one to 
whom externalisms have been all along consis- 
tently indifferent, who has owned little, built 
little, accumulated little, if, in the material 
sense, anything at all — it is only when such an 
one is taken from his place and work in life, and 
we suddenly realize how much has gone out of 
the world in his departure, that we readjust our 
point of view. There have been rich men, 
potential men in their influences upon the street 
or the market — men whose presence made 
weaker men tremble for the interests which 
their cleverness and their combinations daily 
threatened — who have died and vanished with- 
out a sign of grief or loss from the great world 
that they seemed to have so mightily influenced, 
and often with only a sigh of relief that clever- 
ness, adroitness, powers of forecast and combi- 
nation, without any fine scruple to restrain 
them, have been taken out of this world. 

What a different sentiment is that which 
gathers this various and widely representative 
assemblage to-day ! As I look down into your 
faces, the gray heads dotting soberly the larger 
assemblage of younger heads and faces, the 
spectacle is profoundly significant. Some of 
you were the contemporaries of McBurney. 
Some of you have known him and worked with 
him during all the years of his connection with 
the Young Men's Christian Association. In all 
sorts of spiritual weather, in dark days as well 
as bright, in grave crises as well as in prosper- 
ous and peaceful seasons, you have wrought 
with him, prayed with him, known him through 
and through. And not only are you in no 
doubt about him to-day — not only have you 
never been in any doubt about him — but, more 
than this, as you stand about his coffin, as little 

38 



are you in any doubt about that supreme fact 
for which so steadfastly and consistently he 
stood — the fact of Jesus Christ, his spiritual 
sovereignty, and the incomparable preciousness 
of fellowship with him, and service for him. 
The air clears, the dust of human strifes and 
rivalries lifts and rolls away. The things seen 
and temporal shrink to their true and insignifi- 
cant proportions; and in the presence of this 
noble manhood, translated now to worthier 
spheres and, as we rejoice to believe, to still 
larger opportunities, we measure by what our 
friend was and did the world and all that is in it 
at their real value. 

I am not here to eulogize him. With your 
knowledge of him and his work, that would be 
superfluous, if not impertinent. He did not 
need interpreting. He was utterly and abso- 
lutely transparent, and the chief charm of his 
character, next to its singular and beautiful 
modesty, was its unreserved, though always 
kindly directness and candor. But, though he 
himself least of all could wish me to spend these 
moments in personal praise, it is our privilege — 
yours and mine — to recall him as he was, and 
to give thanks for qualities so fine and high, 
and, best of all, so absolutely consecrated. 

In their development it is impossible not to 
recognize those converging forces which are a 
part of God's providential ordering in making 
men, and in fitting them for their work. Once, 
in his company, it came out incidentally that 
he was a Methodist, and I said : ' ■ McBurney, I 
have always credited you with being a Scotch 
Presbyterian. Surely 'thy speech bewrayeth 
thee.' Thou art a Calvinist and a Scotchman." 
"No," he answered smilingly, "I am neither. 
I am Irish by race, and by fellowship a Metho- 

39 



dist." It let in a flood of light upon character- 
istics in him, which are rarely combined, and 
still more rarely in such happy proportions. A 
mutual friend told me yesterday that Dr. Hodge 
of Princeton once looked in upon him as he was 
teaching a Bible class, and, after listening a few 
moments, said, as he came away, "McBurney 
is a Calvinist, though he don't know it." He 
had been speaking of God's great purpose for 
man — a purpose not to be baffled or defeated by 
man's waywardness or perverseness, however 
extreme. In that sense I hope we are all Cal- 
vinists, holding fast, amid human failures, to 
the divine in man, which shall at last triumph 
over all sin and wrong. And we can imagine 
McBurney talking to a company of young men, 
and pleading with them to own their nobler 
destiny, and not to fight against the constrain- 
ing love of Jesus Christ. For, after all, that 
was the dominant spring with him, as was 
natural in the fellowship to which he belonged. 
I shall not misjudge them, I think, if I say that 
the dominant note in the theology of our Metho- 
dist brethren is a note of hope. And this was 
a preeminent note in the work and ministry of 
our brother departed. 

I call it a ministry, and I do so advisedly, for 
no theory of the ministry can leave out of 
account the apostle's definition: "As every 
man hath received the gift, even so minister 
the same one to another, as good stewards of 
the manifold grace of God." No one who knew 
him can doubt that he had received the gift — 
the highest, and best — of the Holy Ghost; and 
dear Dr. Howard Crosby, when McBurney was 
presented on his fiftieth birthday with a purse 
of gold pieces, only spoke the truth when he 
said, ' ' I know of no pastor of any church in this 

40 



city, whose ministry has been so useful and 
extended as the ministry of McBurney." How 
wide-reaching it was, how gentle, how coura- 
geous, how enduring in its influence ! One stops 
to think of all the young men that have passed 
under his hand, and have been moved and enno- 
bled by his touch. Where are they to-day ? 
Scattered far and wide, all round the world, in 
various callings and communities, but still carry- 
ing with them, I venture to think, the impress of 
that affectionate interest, and wise counsel, and 
unwearied watchfulness, which once they expe- 
rienced at his hands. What words of courage 
he has spoken ! What lessons of loyalty, and 
purity, and fidelity to their divine Master he 
has urged upon disheartened, and lonely, and 
tempted ones ! What new faith in themselves 
and in God he has awakened in them, and what 
hosts of young men and of older men there are 
to-day, who have come to believe in the father- 
hood of God, because, first of all, they learned 
to believe in the brotherhood of Robert McBur- 
ney ! 

And now we are to bear him to his rest. 
Fitly above his breast there lies yonder wreath 
of orchids, with their chastened hues, so like his 
simple and modest manhood; and still more 
fitly rest there those pure white roses, like his 
own unstained and blameless self. True knight 
of God, well done ! Thou goest — who of us can 
doubt it? — to larger tasks even as to nobler 
fellowships. Be ours to follow thee, as thou 
hast followed Christ ! 

The closing prayer was offered by Bishop 
Potter. 

The interment took place later in the burial 
plot owned by the association in Woodlawn cem- 

41 



etery, to which the name of " Place of Rest" 
had been given by Mr. McBurney, through 
whose thoughtful efforts and solicitation it was 
procured. Already it had proved a place of 
burial for a number of young men, strangers in 
the city, to whom the association had ministered 
during their last sickness. 

VI. MEMORIAL SERVICE, SUNDAY, JANUARY 
15, 1899. 

A few weeks before his death Mr. McBurney 
recorded in his will the following wish : — 

* ■ If a service should be held at the time of my funeral 
in Association Hall, it is my wish that William E. Dodge 
preside, and that Richard C. Morse, and William W. 
Hoppin, and Cephas Brainerd be invited to speak to 
young men regarding fidelity to the association and 
personal work for leading men to the Saviour, and I wish 
to have congregational singing only." 

In response to the very general and urgent 
desire of his friends and associates such a ser- 
vice was held on Sunday afternoon, January 
fifteenth. According to the wish of Mr. McBur- 
ney, as above expressed, Mr. William E. Dodge 
consented to preside. A large audience assem- 
bled, representative of all classes in the com- 
munity, and including many prominent citizens 
of New York and other cities. Prayer was 
offered by Reverend George Alexander, D. D. 

Mr. Dodge then spoke as follows : — 

This is not a funeral service to-day, with its 
note of loss and sadness, but a tender tribute of 

42 



loving friends to one who in life was strong and 
noble and pure ; who did a grand work for his 
Master and for his fellow men ; who gave him- 
self unselfishly, even to the death, for others; 
who had no time to rest here, and has gone to 
his rest in a better world. 

This room is full of friends whose lives Mr. 
McBurney touched, and always touched to bless 
and sweeten. As his life-long personal friend, 
it is very hard for me to express myself to-day. 
I feel too deeply moved by a personal loss to 
see with a clear vision what I would like to see, 
but I am sure that all our lives will be better by 
talking awhile of that life so full, so useful, and 
so wonderful. I have never known any one 
whose life I envied so thoroughly; he had the 
opportunity, which he gladly seized, of always 
working, day and night, for his Master, whom 
he loved so much, and for his brothers, for 
whom he had so rare a sympathy. Mr. McBur- 
ney came nearly forty years ago into this Young 
Men's Christian association work. It was a 
new work then ; it had scarcely the confidence 
of even the churches. I think that, in a true 
sense, Mr. McBurney was the discoverer of the 
value of young men to themselves, and to the 
church, and to the state. He believed that they 
could be won by sympathy and brotherly kind- 
ness, and he believed that there was a possi- 
bility in their lives through which they could be 
saved, if they were only led and directed rightly 
in the beginning. I think there was a sort of 
skepticism for many years about young men, a 
feeling that they must run their chances, that 
some would certainly fall, that many would be 
scarred all their lives through by the tempta- 
tions they met with, and that some few would 
come out rightly. Mr. McBurney believed in 

43 



better things for young men. He believed, as 
we all do, that we are all sons of God, and that 
every wandering lonely son could be brought 
back to his Father, if only rightly touched and 
reached by Christian sympathy and love. 

I want to run over rapidly some of the phases 
of this wonderful life, so full of action and ser- 
vice. When Mr. McBurney began his work in 
the New York association, it was very small, 
and hardly known or understood in the town. 
It was wonderful how he touched and influenced 
young men, and yet, as I look back upon it, it 
was more wonderful how he won the confidence 
and esteem of the wealthy men of the city, of 
clergymen of all denominations and of all faiths, 
and of good men who loved the city and the 
country. 

He put this association on a strong basis ; he 
arranged its organization, which has been the 
guide for the organization of other associations 
everywhere. He, however, soon found the 
necessity for a building for the association. It 
must have a home, bright and cheerful, full of 
all sorts of things that would reach young men 
away from their homes, and help them to keep 
strong and clear of temptation. This building 
speaks to some of us very touchingly of Mr. 
McBurney. There is not a room or a corner of 
it but he designed. It was absolutely a new 
thing in those days. Every part of it was 
thought out so kindly and thoroughly that 
although finer buildings and grander ones have 
been built in other places no one of them was 
put up without having for its principal arrange- 
ment those plans which he devised, and which 
have stood the test of time. 

Another thing that interested me in those 
early days of Mr. McBurney's wonderful work, 

44 



was the fact that he not only became interested 
in young men here alone in the city, but he 
interested himself very keenly and warmly in 
young men who had homes and opportunities 
and privileges here, and he sought and suc- 
ceeded in winning their confidence, and made 
them feel that they had an obligation to their 
brothers who were less privileged than they, 
and he gathered about him a large class of 
young men of importance in the town, who had 
friends and relatives here, and through them 
he was enabled to obtain means for putting up 
this large building. 

He then interested himself in the develop- 
ment of association work for young men all 
through the country. Of that Mr. Brainerd, 
who was long the chairman of the international 
committee, can speak better than I can. In the 
conferences that were held in all parts of the 
country and all over the world no one had so 
much influence as Mr. McBurney; modest, retir- 
ing, never willing to appear upon the platform, 
he was always, with his guiding hand, behind 
everything that was wise and good. I believe 
that the association stands so high in the world, 
largely though that even poise of judgment, 
that kindliness, that influence that he, with the 
high qualities of a gentleman in all his inter- 
course with others, unselfish and wise, was able 
to exert. 

He then became interested in young men of 
other classes — the railroad men, exposed as you 
know they are to all the dangers of long and 
weary trips in summer and winter, and with no 
place to go, when they came in from their long 
runs, but the saloon. He won the confidence of 
one who loyally and splendidly equipped the 
great railroad branch for the association, which 

45 



has done so much good to the city. He became 
interested in the student movement and in the 
young men of the colleges. It is a wonderful 
thing for those who are interested in higher 
education, to know how different the Christian 
influence and sentiment in all our great colleges 
and universities is to-day from what it was when 
that work began. Then the young men com- 
ing from their homes too often hid their light, 
as if ashamed to range themselves with other 
Christian young men. Now it is much more 
commonly the thing for a man to show his col- 
ors, and a man is esteemed and respected who 
is a manly Christian. 

I could go on speaking very warmly and ear- 
nestly of the various phases of this work as it 
developed. It would be unjust to him and to 
his precious memory, though, if we left out 
what, after all, was the great work of his life — 
and that was the daily touch with young men 
who came to these rooms; it was every hour of 
every day, and every evening, summer and win- 
ter, Sundays and week days. 

To those of you who are not acquainted with 
the movement of young men it would be a sur- 
prise to know what a clearing house for young 
men New York is. They come here from 
every part of the world, of every nationality. 
Soon they began to find out that there was a 
home feeling in this association, and that they 
could meet a friend here. He had a sort of 
magic touch. I cannot understand it. It was 
very kindly, brotherly, friendly; it was not 
inquisitive ; but he won the confidence of these 
young men at once, and they told him all about 
themselves. He was a sort of father confessor 
to them. He told them how to withstand 
temptation. Many of those who are settled in 

46 



New York can tell you how much influence he 
had on their lives; and I suppose there is 
hardly a place in the world where English- 
speaking people are found, where there is not 
one or more young men whose lives have been 
changed by their intercourse with Mr. McBur- 
ney. It was a wonderful power; there was 
such continuity about it ; it had a direct effect 
which always astonished those who knew him 
best. And then he was so unconscious of it, 
never speaking of his work to others unless he 
had an opportunity to recommend some young 
man to a place for which he was fitted. We 
have not now, and never will have, any exact 
record of what a powerful influence for good he 
was in this direction. 

But I am speaking too much of Mr. McBur- 
ney. There ought to be a song of triumph 
to-day from all his brothers. Having no near 
relatives in New York, and no home here, he 
lived in the association and for it ; he took no 
rest, but constantly was following his Master's 
voice. He became an adviser and counselor 
and friend of people of all kinds of religions; 
Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, clergymen of dif- 
ferent faiths, were wont to come here and con- 
sult him ; men of large means, who wanted to 
make their wills, and who wanted to know how 
best to use the money that God had given to 
them, asked and acted on his advice. 

This meeting has a tender and pathetic inter- 
est from the fact that it was arranged by Mr. 
McBurney himself. It would have been very 
easy for us to have gathered great men from all 
parts of the country. They would gladly have 
come to show honor to him ; but with a clear 
eye, knowing that his end was very near, 
quietly and calmly waiting for the coming of 

47 



his Master, he said that he wanted no funeral 
service. He merely wanted to have a few 
friends, whose names he gave, and who will 
speak here to-day, talk to the young men of the 
association and the older men who have gradu- 
ated from it and give to them his last message. 

Mr. McBurney left little money ; almost every 
dollar he gave away as it came. He had no 
time in this busy age to make money. He was 
living for better and higher things, but he left 
as his last will and testament this injunction to 
us, ' ' that we should be loyal to the association, 
and that we should gladly continue in the per- 
sonal work of winning souls to Christ " ; loyal to 
the work he loved, personal work for the Sav- 
iour, for whom he lived and died. That is his 
bequest to us. We are his executors and trus- 
tees. 

In that beautiful address made by Bishop 
Potter at Mr. McBurney's funeral service a few 
days ago, he told us, as some of you remember, 
that this death led us to "readjust our standard 
of values." How little do glory and money and 
worldly successes count, as contrasted with such 
a life as that of our dear friend! He believed 
with all his heart that every Christian man, 
clergyman and layman, had just such opportu- 
nities, and that if they all would only awake to 
their opportunities and chances of work for 
Christ, this world would soon begin to gladden 
and brighten for the coming of the Lord. 

I hope we shall all take away with us the 
memory of this good and beautiful life, and 
take away more than that, the impulse to follow 
him as he followed Christ. 

Mr. William W. Hoppin was then introduced 
by the chairman as a warm friend of Mr. 

48 



McBurney and for a long time president of the 
association. He spoke as follows : — 

I would feel indeed unable to speak on an 
occasion of this kind if I supposed that any of 
you had come to hear me. The thought that is 
in your hearts and in my heart is that we are all 
here because we loved Robert McBurney. 
Izaak Walton said that a companion who was 
cheerful was golden, and I think he would 
have enjoyed the companionship of Robert Mc- 
Burney. He was a man — cordial, cheerful, 
hopeful, everything that makes a man attractive 
for young and old in this life struggle. His 
cheerfulness did not come from that inactive 
good nature which we see sometimes in men 
who have not the desire to fight the battle of 
life and who have not the courage of their con- 
victions. His cheerfulness was born of love; 
his influence came not in the wedge shape which 
thrusts itself in and rends asunder, but it was 
more like the sunshine, which all feel who come 
near it. He was a tactful man; and when we 
say tactful we do not mean that element in a 
man which leads him to seek the favor of others 
obsequiously for his own good. He was tactful 
because he had no self-love. 

I think he was the most self-forgetful man 
that I ever met. It was at the basis of every- 
thing that he did. I suppose that some here 
remember the days when the executive com- 
mittee met in the room over there at five o'clock 
in the afternoon, and when, after a weary day 
of work and with a feeling that we ought not to 
be called upon to do anything more that day 
but should be allowed to go home, we entered 
the room to find McBurney always there and 
always full of good things that he wished to 

49 



have considered. And so the half-hours would 
go, and the hours would go, and though we 
would be restless to get away — how well I can 
remember it — he never thought about hours for 
eating and sleeping or anything else that con- 
cerned his personal comfort so long as the asso- 
ciation work claimed him. Sometimes he would 
rise, when we were getting restless and moving 
towards the door, and with that peculiarly inter- 
ested look in his face that held everyone he 
would say, ' ' Do not go, please ; stay just one 
moment." And then he would develop some 
plan which would lead us to forget dinner and 
other things — something that he had been think- 
ing about and wanted acted upon because he 
knew it was of vital importance. I have not 
had the privilege of being associated with him 
now for many years in the active work of the 
association. Yet whenever recently I have met 
him I have felt strengthened and helped. If it 
was only for a moment on the street, as I was 
passing down to my business, he always stopped 
and had a word about the work. 

I am not going to ask you to listen to me 
while I speak in detail of his work. I am here 
simply because I loved him, and want to say 
what I think he would like to have me say, and 
it is this — that, if in this work you young men 
are to make your mark and help your fellow 
men, you must be absolutely without self-love. 
I do not mean merely that you should practice 
self-denial ; that is good, but self-forgetfulness 
is better — counting one's self as nothing, and 
Christ as everything. That was the secret of 
McBurney's power — the spontaneity of the man. 
Perfunctory? — he could not be perfunctory. In 
everything he did you felt that there was a great 
moving power within him. The members of 

50 



the boys' club, who came to him with some little 
matter, he was immediately in touch with and 
knew their wants, and entered into full sympa- 
thy with them. He loved Christ more than he 
loved any other person or thing, and it was no 
self-denial for him to work. He was not think- 
ing of what place he was to occupy, and what 
effect it was to have on him, but of his work for 
the Master. He was human, he had his limita- 
tions ; but his life overstepped the limitations. 
He was not institutionalized; but if I may use 
the phrase, he McBurneyized the institution — 
nay, he was the power inside that moved and 
widened the association work. Why, I remem- 
ber my first visit to the rooms, years ago, in the 
absence of McBurney. There did not seem to 
be anything to them. The secretary did not 
know what it was to be a secretary. His was a 
sort of perfunctory duty of keeping rooms open 
and pamphlets on hand. But McBurney found 
out what young men needed. Under him the 
work of the institution developed, and men 
began to realize that young men were to be 
taken care of, and men of wealth and power, 
who had not thought of these things, came for- 
ward to give to McBurney all the support and 
all the help that he needed. 

Young men ! let me ask you one thing. In 
this crowded, restless city, do you think you are 
doing Christ's work? Are you doing it in a 
perfunctory way? Are you attending your com- 
mittee meetings, and church meetings, and 
going to the association on a sort of debit and 
credit account system, because you owe a little 
on this side of the account, and a little to the 
world? Are you thinking only of self-advance- 
ment? Because, if you are, you cannot do 
McBurney's work, and the work he wanted the 

51 



association to do. You cannot be as useful as 
he was unless you can get as close to the Mas- 
ter as he did, and as far outside of yourself as 
he did; but, if you do, you will then realize 
what power and love for the work will develop. 

Mr. Richard C. Morse, general secretary of 
the international committee, and for thirty years 
associated with Mr. McBurney in work for young 
men, was introduced, and spoke as follows: — 

Mr. McBurney was a man of right choices. 
When he came to this city, a friendless young 
man, on the evening of his arrival he sought 
the rooms of the association, then obscure and 
small but hospitable. He made a right choice 
that first day — a choice of right companionship, 
and soon he was in the church and in the Sun- 
day-school. Eight years passed away, during 
which he made a beginning of business life in 
the great city. Then, being temporarily out of 
employment, he was asked to take temporary 
charge of the association rooms. He consented 
to this. And the first holiday that occurred he 
spent in those rooms, little dreaming that he 
would, in a similar way, spend every future 
holiday of his life in the rooms of the Young 
Men's Christian Association. For on that day 
a stranger young man, friendless as he had been 
when he arrived in the city, came into the rooms, 
and during the day Mr. McBurney led him to 
faith and trust in Jesus Christ as his Saviour. 
In telling me the story years afterward, he 
added, "That settled my choice of Christian 
work as a life work." He did not then intelli- 
gently choose what we now call the work of a 
general secretary, for there was then little idea 
of what that office and its work was. In that 

52 



infant period of the association its present 
methods, agencies, and permanent mission were 
not defined. But later, when this building was 
in process of construction, he told me one day 
that he was thinking of eventually studying for 
the gospel ministry, as his goal in Christian 
work. A few friends had counseled him to do 
this. I expressed great surprise, for I had been 
deeply impressed, as were many others, with 
his rare qualification for the work in which he 
was then engaged. But he said, "Very soon 
I will be old ; too old for the secretaryship ; too 
old to help young men, and they will want to 
get rid of me. " That critical deliberation ended 
in a third right choice. This building was com- 
pleted, and the fuller outline of the work, then 
new and strange in the land and in the church, 
came clearly and well defined before his vision, 
and he devoted himself to it with a life enthu- 
siasm that never faltered. 

At the time this building was dedicated, in 
December, 1869, it was my privilege — a very 
great privilege — to have our pathways in life 
and work unite. It had been owing to his influ- 
ence that, some years before, I had become con- 
nected with the New York association, and now 
it was owing to his suggestion and influence 
that I became an employed officer of the inter- 
national committee. A desk was assigned me 
in the office of the committee, which had been 
located near his own office in the new building. 
Later, we occupied rooms in the tower of the 
building for ten years. He little dreamed what 
he was doing in those first thirteen years in this 
building. In December, 1869, when it was 
opened and dedicated, it was the only structure 
of its kind in the world — the only one that had 
been built to accommodate what we are now 

53 



familiar with as the fourfold work of the asso- 
ciation : physical, intellectual, social, and spirit- 
ual. Some parts of this work were then a new 
experiment. Some of the leaders were doubt- 
ful how long they could keep together as a unit 
all the varied work attempted in this building. 
The distinctive and invaluable service which 
Mr. McBurney rendered the association con- 
sisted in his outlining and illustrating the nature, 
qualifications, and work of its executive em- 
ployed officer. He was giving his life to this 
varied work for young men in Christ's name. 
It was a complicated and difficult task, requiring 
a man of rare ability and great endowment. 
Mr. McBurney, in those thirteen years, met in 
an exemplary way this exacting requirement. 

As American citizens we deem it to have been 
of vast benefit to the country that when, in the 
infancy of the republic, its first chief executive 
was to be chosen, a man was elected to the pres- 
idency who was as much greater than the office 
as "The Father of his Country" is greater than 
any office in the gift of that country. And in 
that critical period of our history, when there 
was also needed a first secretary of the treasury 
— the bankrupt treasury of the republic — was it 
not a vast and providential benefit that Alexan- 
der Hamilton was greater than the office which 
he undertook to define and administer? Because 
of their extraordinary qualifications these two 
great men so administered their trust as to 
influence and shape the administration of the 
presidency and the treasury for all time to the 
vast advantage of the nation. Equally happy 
was it for the brotherhood of the Young Men's 
Christian Association that its first general sec- 
retary, who was called upon to define the nature, 
qualifications, and duties of the office, was a 

54 



man so much greater than the office that he 
gave to it at the very outset a character and 
usefulness which otherwise could not have been 
realized. 

He attended faithfully the annual meetings 
of the American general secretaries, beginning 
with the first in 1871, when barely a dozen were 
present, who constituted the great majority of 
such officers then employed by the associations. 
For more than ten years, while the number of 
secretaries increased from a dozen to several 
hundred, this was the best existing institute for 
training these officers. In these formative years 
he was leader, guide, instructor, exemplar. 
And then when the time was ripe he exerted all 
his influence to help in founding the first secre- 
tarial training school, and was for years its chief 
counselor and trustee. 

He, however, was not then intent upon or con- 
scious of doing this work for the country and 
the world. He was doing his work for those 
young men that were coming into this building 
day after day, and year after year, whom he 
was leading to faith and life in Jesus Christ. 
He was doing it out of that unselfish love 
for men which Jesus Christ planted in his heart, 
and because this love dominated his life. But 
none the less he was doing an invaluable work 
for the whole brotherhood in this land and in 
other lands. Men came from all parts of the 
country into this building. If I have seen one 
man stand on the corner of Fourth avenue and 
Twenty-third street and put his valise down on 
the ground that he might enjoy the sight of this 
building, I have seen hundreds, and they would 
come to the door and read the name over it, 
and on their faces came a look of surprise, that 
the Young Men's Christian Association should 

55 



possess such a building. Many of these men 
entered and examined the building, and before 
that decade was over quite a number of build- 
ings on this model had been erected by the 
associations in different cities. Mr. McBurney, 
when he prepared the annual reports that he 
read from this desk year after year, as the older 
ones among you will remember, often gave par- 
ticular account, not only of the progress of the 
New York city association, but also of the pro- 
gress of the work in the state and throughout 
the continent and the world. 

To the New York state conventions he went 
steadily. He was the father and founder of this 
state organization and work. To every inter- 
national convention save one, beginning with 
1865, he went with equal fidelity. To him a 
convention was a thing of life. Of this life he 
felt himself to be a part. He seemed to feel the 
pulse-beat of it during all the sessions and to be 
sensitive to everything that was vitally related 
to the work of the convention and to its best 
interests and usefulness. He brought to the 
floor the expert knowledge of a local secretary, 
which he, above all men in the country during 
those early formative years, was acquiring in 
this building. How often during that period, 
after a weary visit to fields of association work 
that were full of discouragement, have I come 
up those stairs and passed into the reception 
room to meet his cheerful greeting, and to look 
about me and to feel that the heart of the work 
was sound and healthy, and that the strong 
pulse that was beating here would send the life- 
blood through the whole brotherhood ! All this 
was due to his efficient day and night service 
year in and year out. 

He attended every World's Conference save 

56 



one in the capitals of Europe between 1872 and 
1894; and last summer, when we met at Basle 
— delegates from twenty-three nations, speaking 
fifteen languages — the only cablegram of greet- 
ing sent by that latest World's Conference was 
addressed to Robert McBurney at the Presby- 
terian Hospital in this city, telling him of the 
sympathy of the whole world brotherhood, and 
of how keenly all mourned the loss of his inval- 
uable counsel and cooperation. 

Now the same retiring modesty that he was 
ever manifesting here, visible to you all, he 
manifested in these larger public meetings. He 
did not seek the platform. Again and again he 
was sought as president of our American inter- 
national convention; once he was elected, but 
declined to serve. He rejoiced in doing the 
unseen work in a quiet, unnoticed way. At 
that great jubilee convention, the World's Con- 
ference in London in 1894 — the last which he 
attended — he was chairman of its chief execu- 
tive committee, consisting of members from the 
various countries represented. He had oppor- 
tunity for hearing very little that was said on 
the floor in Exeter Hall, so he told me, because 
in that committee there was indispensable, quiet 
work to be done — a quiet work of conciliation, 
on which rested the unity of the movement, a 
work that could only be accomplished by prayer 
and the wisest and most loving endeavor. 
There was a sad lack of unity in the committee 
when it was first appointed and called together. 
It was not until just before the last session of 
the conference that the triumph of peace and 
unity was gained in prayer led by the chairman, 
Robert McBurney. In the report of that con- 
ference — a very interesting report, filling an 
octavo volume — you will find much wise and 

57 



eloquent discourse ; but you will search in vain 
for any mention of the fact that I have stated to 
you, and yet on that quiet work of conciliation 
hinged very much of what was accomplished in 
that memorable assembly. He was able to 
render this important and critical service for the 
World's Conference of 1894 because already in 
many American conventions, especially during 
the formative period of the association move- 
ment, he had again and again rendered the 
same invaluable, unrecorded service. 

All the wide and varied service of this busy 
life was wrought, as we now see, not only for 
the young men he was meeting in this city, but 
for the young men of the nation, of the conti- 
nent, and of the world. He was successful in it 
all, not merely because he was a man of remark- 
able ability and talent, but because he was a 
man of rare consecration and of rare endow- 
ment by the Spirit of God with that unselfish 
love which the Apostle Paul struggles to put 
into words in the thirteenth chapter of the First 
Epistle to the Corinthians. As I read and pon- 
der those words I shall ever think of Robert 
McBurney, and how, in the close companionship 
of many blessed years of personal friendship, he 
carried home to my conscience, my heart and 
my life the meaning of that matchless portion 
of the Word of God. 

Well, he is gone from us — so we say, because 
these bodily eyes do not see him. But I believe 
that he is here with us and solicitous as ever for 
this work, that it should be kept close to its 
divine purpose, always animated by the spirit as 
well as bearing the name of Jesus Christ. And 
as I think of him as he appeared on this plat- 
form year after year to report the work of the 
association it will always be pleasant to recall 

58 



two verses of a hymn which I remember he dis- 
covered in the hymn book one day when we 
were working over the annual report. With a 
light in his countenance, and joy in his voice, 
he exclaimed, "We must put these verses at 
the end of the report this year ! " You will find 
them at the close of his report for 1873. They 
express the aspiration of his life, which he 
wants us all to share with him : — 

11 We who so tenderly were sought, 
Shall we not joyful seekers be, 
And to Thy feet divinely brought, 
Help weaker souls, O Lord, to Thee ? 

" Celestial Seeker, send us forth ! 
Almighty Lover, teach us love ! 
When shall we yearn to help our earth 
As yearned the Holy One above?" 

The chairman introduced Mr. A. H. De- 
Haven, who, on behalf of the trustees of St. 
Paul's Methodist Episcopal church, presented 
the following memorial and resolutions : — 

Minute adopted by the board of trustees of the St. 
Paul's Methodist Episcopal church at a special meeting 
held January eighth, 1899: — 

In the removal of Robert R. McBurney, who departed 
this life December twenty-seventh, 1898, the officiary 
and membership of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal church, 
New York, sustain a loss of unusual gravity. 

Uniting with the church in August, 1854, and remain- 
ing in its fellowship until his death, he was prominently 
identified with its continuous life for more than forty 
years. 

Occupied with the service of the institution for the 
success of which he gave his life, omitting no detail in 
the discharge of his obligations to that organization, he 
yet found opportunity to devote himself with singular 
earnestness to the interests of the church with which he 

59 



was connected. Without a trace of narrowness in his 
composition, quick to discover and ready to acknowledge 
the good in every form of religious activity, rising above 
all mere sectarian and partisan considerations, convinced 
that the service of Christ transcends loyalty to a human 
creed, he nevertheless clung with sterling fidelity to the 
doctrine and polity of that body of Christians with which 
he associated himself early in life. Such was the con- 
fidence reposed in his wisdom by his brethren that for 
many years he was an honored member of the board of 
trustees and of the board of stewards of St. Paul's church. 
In official position he bore himself with exceeding dis- 
cretion and dignity. He was the comrade and counselor 
of his pastor, the judicious but humble monitor of his 
fellow laborers, the chivalric Christian gentleman at all 
times and everywhere. His loving forbearance, his 
untiring patience, his exhaustless charity, made him an 
inspiring personality to all who met him. 

Generous beyond his means, it was his fortune to scat- 
ter in God's name, and not to husband in his own. Per- 
sistent against all discouragements in prosecuting his 
providential task, he saw the noble fruitage of his toil in 
the salvation of many souls. " He was a good man, and 
full of the Holy Ghost and of faith ; and much people was 
added unto the Lord" by him. 

His distinguished services in behalf of young men have 
ineffaceably written his eulogy in the character of those 
whom he helped to a better life ; the record of his achieve- 
ments will constitute an important chapter in the history 
of Christian progress in the latter half of the nineteenth 
century in America ; the memory of his gracious fellow- 
ship, his helpful ministry, his heroic consecration, will 
abide forever in the hearts of those who were privileged 
to be his companions. 

Having departed to that better country whither his 
feet were ever tending, and whence he will not return, 
we record our profound sense of personal loss, our sin- 
cere sympathy for the great organization so sorely bereft, 

60 



and our hearty thanksgiving to God for the abundant 
life and the triumphant faith of our translated brother. 
(Signed) E. M. F. Miller, 

Secretary. 

The Honorable Elihu Root was then intro- 
duced, and on behalf of the trustees and direc- 
tors of the New York association, presented the 
following memorial and resolution : — 

Robert R. McBurney died on Tuesday, the twenty- 
seventh of December, 1898, at the age of sixty-one years, 

In the death of Mr. McBurney the association, the 
community the Christian world, mankind, have lost a 
friend, and a life of rare usefulness has closed. He has 
left an impression upon the manhood of his day and gen- 
eration which has been permitted to few men. For 
thirty and six years he has been the general secretary of 
the Young Men's Christian Association of New York 
City, being the first to occupy that position. Having 
been identified with the association from its early days 
to its present, from the time when its life seemed flicker- 
ing in uncertainty until the time when its influence has 
become recognized and welcomed throughout Christen- 
dom, he has exercised a powerful formative influence 
upon this work, not only in America, but throughout 
Europe and the world. Modest, untiring, wise and 
unselfish, a man of refined and cultured tastes, and of 
attractive personality, he was the adviser, the friend, 
and the helper of young men. 

The work of the Young Men's Christian Association 
was an almost untried experiment when he became iden- 
tified with it, and he lived to see it a great power in the 
land. He was so genuine and brotherly in his personal 
contact with young men of all classes, that he won their 
confidence, cheered and counseled them in loneliness 
and temptation, and fortified them until they learned to 
battle for themselves. Night and day, without sparing 

61 



himself, he patiently and gladly continued this quiet, 
unobserved work, to be evident only in the consecrated 
lives of those he influenced. His sympathies were broad- 
ened by his faith, and were limited to no one field of 
human service. Men of all creeds came to him for advice 
and help, and in all Christian charities and social reforms 
his experience, his mature knowledge of men, and his saga- 
city in the affairs of life, gave rare value to his counsels. 
His life consisted of a constant and generous giving out 
of himself for others, until calmly and with faith await- 
ing the summons, he died, not full of years, but his years 
filled with noble effort and grand results, his thoughts to 
the last intent upon the work he was leaving and the 
friends he loved. We recognize the goodness of God in 
giving us for so many years the work of this devoted 
man. His memory is a benediction and an inspiration. 

Resolved, That a committee of eight, consisting of the 
presiding officer of this meeting as chairman, and seven 
others to be named by him, be hereby appointed, who 
shall take whatever steps their judgment prompts to 
provide a fitting memorial of the life and services of this 
friend of young men, and of his unparalleled work in 
their behalf. 

Mr. Root then spoke as follows: — 

I offer this resolution, Mr. Chairman, not 
simply becatise I have been asked to offer it by 
the trustees of the association who caused it to 
be prepared, but with a hearty and genuine 
sympathy in the words and the purpose of the 
resolution, which recalls a permanent friendship 
of nearly thirty-four years ; with the very deep- 
est affection and gratitude for helpful kindness 
in my early life ; and with admiration for Mr. 
McBurney's character and his preeminent quali- 
ties as a man and for the great things he has 
done. Gratitude and affection have followed 
him during all the course of his days, but now 

62 



that he is gone and we can look back upon his 
life we only begin to realize how great he was. 
When we remember how prejudice, bitterness 
and cruelty have divided mankind in all the 
years of theological strife, we may realize how 
great was the nature that brought together in 
the pursuit of a common end men of all denomi- 
nations. How great a nature was this that 
attracted all and repelled none ! He was simple, 
direct, truthful ; and yet he was skillful, adroit, 
carefully weighing and following the wisest 
course to attain the end. 

I think the secret of his wonderful success lay 
in the quality of sympathy with the best in every 
man's nature. It made no difference what the 
man was — what his associations, his training, 
his beliefs, his purposes — the best there was in 
him Robert McBurney found with the unerring 
sympathy of his wonderful spirit. His life was 
a thing above all dogmas ; and with his unselfish- 
ness, his freedom from cant, the intensity of his 
belief and the wonderful persistence of his pur- 
pose, he accomplished a work the like of which 
has never been seen in the days of our modern 
civilization among all the people of Christian 
religions. I believe that while we have parted 
with him as a friend — as the kindly, gentle com- 
panion, with his attractive manner and sweet 
temper — as he recedes into the past and men look 
back at him he will be seen to be a greater man, 
of a greater nature and of a greater worth, than 
many among those of his day who have filled 
great places in church and state, have founded 
great fortunes, builded great material works, 
and have been highly esteemed by mankind. 

Cephas Brainerd was introduced, and spoke 
as follows: — 

63 



I have one reason which I deem unanswerable 
for taking part in this service, and that is, Mr. 
McBurney in his will named those whom he 
wished to have invited to speak if such a meet- 
ing as this were held. He also indicated clearly 
the general topics which he thought might be 
treated. 

An intimate acquaintance with Mr. McBurney, 
commencing in 1862 and continued to the end 
of his life, the affection which existed between 
us, my own sense of personal loss as well as my 
sense of the loss which the association cause in 
New York and in the wide world has suffered 
in his death, the consciousness of the loss which 
many good enterprises have suffered in this visi- 
tation, would together, in their influence upon 
me personally, have prevented any active partici- 
pation in the scenes of this day. I shall not, 
therefore, in anything I may say, refer to the 
circumstances which make the visitation which 
calls us together so completely afflictive. 

When I met Mr. McBurney, and for some 
time thereafter, the predominating quality 
which he exhibited was that of diffidence. True, 
he was kindly, genial and pleasing; but he was 
extremely modest and retiring. Indeed, I 
believe he had never spoken in any meeting 
public in its character. It was probably true, 
as was often said, that he was willing to take 
part in the devotional services of his own church 
because it was there the custom for all persons 
to kneel during prayer, and so he could be heard 
practically from a place of concealment, being 
hidden by the backs of the benches. 

At that early date he exhibited none of those 
larger qualities which afterwards distinguished 
him. He was then neither a reader nor a 
student, and his familiarity with affairs, such as 

64 



it was, seeemed to have come solely from a good 
knowledge of the moderate business in which 
he had been engaged as a clerk. He withdrew 
from school and came here early in life, not 
wholly in accordance with the advice or wishes 
of his parents. His father was a Christian man, 
a competent and popular physician, and his 
mother a devoted and exemplary woman, filling 
admirably her position. He could not have 
received any considerable financial assistance 
from home. 

All present this afternoon know what Mr. 
McBurney was at the close of his extremely 
useful life. From the time of my first acquaint- 
ance with him he rapidly advanced, taking no 
step backward to the end ; and the resolutions 
which have been submitted, while wholly true, 
inadequately describe his career. No man I 
have ever known grew more steadily or in a 
more shapely way than Mr. McBurney. In the 
largest sense of the words he was a thoroughly 
self-made man. 

I can best fill out, while saying something 
about him, the idea which I think was in his 
mind when he gave the directions for this ser- 
vice, by noting some of the elements which con- 
tributed to his continuous growth. 

He had a wonderful faculty for the acquisition 
of knowledge ; all was fish that came to his net. 
Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, 
whomsoever he was with, this wonderful acquisi- 
tive faculty was in constant operation. The 
newspapers, the companions in the cars, the 
visitors at his room and at his office, the talks 
that he heard, the sermons that he listened to, 
the books that he read, and the books that others 
read to him, were all his helpers. What he 
read, and heard, and saw, his strong memory 

65 



retained and the quickness of his faculties enabled 
him to employ as occasion might require, so 
that, as you all know, he became a wise instruc- 
tor, a judicious adviser, a thorough executive 
officer, an educated man. 

When he began his career in the association, 
there was in its management and upon its com- 
mittees a group of extremely able, wise, and 
public-spirited men. Its affairs, the principles 
upon which it was founded, the work which it 
could consistently undertake in furtherance of 
those principles, were thoroughly and carefully 
discussed by these men. Within three years 
after he became connected officially with the 
association, the enterprise was begun which 
resulted in the building we now occupy. It was 
for such an institution an unexampled under- 
taking. The obtaining of the money necessary 
to erect it involved a great deal of consideration, 
much solicitation, and many efforts to secure 
public attention to it ; with all these Mr. McBurney 
became very familiar, and in them he had his 
appropriate part. He was constant in his atten- 
tion to the work of constructing and fitting up 
this building, which seems even now pervaded 
by his benignant presence. During all this long 
period and long after, men such as I have men- 
tioned continued their connection with the 
undertaking. Happily, many of them are now 
living and in active service — some are present, 
and I do not mention their names — as types, 
however, I may mention two or three who have 
departed, Cornelius R. Agnew, Elbert B. Mon- 
roe, and William F. Lee of New York city, and 
in the larger work for young men in the United 
States and the British Provinces and in Europe, 
men like John S. Maclean of Halifax, H. Thane 
Miller of Cincinnati, and William Edwyn Shipton 

66 



of London. I may say this, that others whom 
I have not mentioned were not inferior to those 
I have named. What a school he attended in 
those earlier days. The educational power of 
these long discussions of principles, of methods, 
of ways and means, the interviews with gentle- 
men whom it was hoped might be interested, 
can hardly be overestimated. Few men ever 
attended so complete an institution for instruc- 
tion in the qualities and powers which Mr. 
McBurney thereafter exhibited in such effective 
fullness. 

Added to this, he grew steadily and rapidly to 
be a large and general reader. He was not 
systematic in this. Indeed he would be called 
a miscellaneous reader — novels, travels, history, 
polemics, poetry, and especially hymns. Nor 
did he neglect either religious or secular news- 
papers. Not only did he read consecutively, 
but he also read by scraps. He could save a 
few minutes wherever he might tarry by read- 
ing the book which was just at his hand, and 
in all he was attentive to what he was doing. 
His thought and his retentive faculty were alive. 
Especially did he read carefully in respect of his 
various journeys in Europe and in the Holy 
Land. He was fully equipped in this regard to 
make his travels useful to himself and also con- 
tributors to his general stock of available knowl- 
edge. 

Finally, and as most important, was his 
thorough and continued and prayerful study of 
the Bible. Those who attended his Bible class 
know how well he was prepared to meet them. 
He did not confine his study to what I may call the 
stock or common expositions of the Scriptures. 
He compared Scripture with Scripture, he com- 
pared the orthodox view with the view of the 

67 



extremist on the one side or the other ; and a 
part of his study was the geography of the 
country, the times in which the Scriptures were 
written, and the people and things which per- 
tained to those times, the modes of thought, the 
habits and customs as disclosed by modern 
research ; so that in fact few men, even in the 
clerical profession, were so completely in pos- 
session of adequate knowledge for personal 
profit or for the instruction of others as was Mr. 
McBurney. In this study he was brought in 
contact with the best thought, with the best 
language, and the highest purposes of the times, 
and so he became broad and wise, as he was 
devoted, devout and earnest. True, he accepted 
the Scriptures as the Word of God, but with no 
blind or unchallenging faith, for all assaults 
upon that Word he tested and weighed, but the 
result was still unshaken faith, unwavering 
confidence, and unyielding trust. In all, through 
all, and over all, was his personal faith and per- 
sonal love for God, for his Son, and his personal 
faith and belief in the power, the pervasive 
and constant presence of the Holy Spirit. He 
believed in prayer and in answer to prayer, and 
he knew whereof he believed. He was constant 
from the beginning to the end to the purpose 
and aim of his life, the advancement of the cause 
of Christ among young men. 

Now, to realize, if I may, the wishes of Mr. 
McBurney in regard to this service, let me say 
that I have disclosed nothing in these observa- 
tions to dishearten any young man, or any older 
man, but much that ought to encourage every 
one, because, in respect of these things, all start 
practically from the same level. There was 
nothing in his career, nothing in his success, 
nothing in the affection with which he was 

68 



regarded, nothing in the sense of loss which we 
feel, but what may be the part and share of lis 
all. True, his was an illustrious career. At 
the end he stood, by the universal acknowledg- 
ment of his associates in the secretaryship the 
world over, their chief. True he had wrought 
great things, true he carried heavy burdens, 
experienced great trials, overcame great difficul- 
ties and obstacles, had warm and earnest con- 
tention, but at sixty-one, after more than thirty- 
six years of service in the public eye in this 
mighty city, he died without an enemy, with 
friends without number here in our own country 
and in every other land where the name of these 
associations is known. As years increased his 
cares and burdens multiplied ; social life, in its 
best sense, attracted him; great philanthropic 
interests — which had for him infinite charm — 
solicited his attention ; business, which he tried 
for a short time after becoming secretary, called 
him ; but at all times this institution of his early 
love had his first and best thought, his untiring 
effort, and his unabated affection. To this 
association, in all the multiplying forms of its 
work, he was faithful unto death. 

Calmly, with love for all, with no sadness of 
farewell to those who were dear to him, with 
hope that was bright for the future, with faith 
that did not falter, he said "good-by" for a little 
time, with his face set, as was the face of Mr. 
Standfast, toward the celestial gate ; looking to 
the meeting with those loved ones who had gone 
before, believing in the meeting by and by with 
those he was leaving behind him, sure of the 
welcome "Well done." Now he — 

" . . . . wears the crown 
Of full and everlasting 
And passionless renown." 

6 9 



The resolution presented by Mr. Root was 
unanimously adopted. 

In closing the service Mr. Dodge said : — 

I trust we have not done to-day what our dear 
friend McBurney would have wished undone. 
He was so modest ; he desired that there might 
be nothing said about him publicly and no meet- 
ing held; and when he was told that there would 
certainly be a memorial service, all he wanted 
was that such a meeting should be a new inspira- 
tion of loyalty to this work and to the personal 
work of winning souls to Christ. We could 
have no better inspiration to such loyalty and 
such work than the story of the life which has 
been an object lesson to us all. 

There was not a bit of selfishness in his 
nature ; but I can imagine that if he ever had a 
selfish wish it was that if he went into the 
heavenly home he should not go alone. All of 
us, I believe, hope that we are going to that 
heavenly home. Shall we go alone, or shall we 
find those waiting for us and following us whom 
we have led to the Father's house? 



VII. THE MEMORIAL. 

Mr. Dodge, according to the terms of the 
resolution adopted at the memorial meeting, 
subsequently appointed the memorial com- 
mittee. 

After careful deliberation this committee 
issued the following decision concerning the 
proposed memorial: — 

70 



During the last years of his life Mr. McBurney was 
absorbingly occupied in promoting the erection and 
equipment of the association building of the West Side 
branch. In itself an embodiment of all that was wisest 
and best in the work for young men which he had been 
accomplishing during the many years of his active con- 
nection with the association, this building, with its 
admirable equipment, stands as the most fitting memo- 
rial of his life work. His deepest solicitude at the time 
he was taken ill related to removing the floating indebt- 
edness on the building, then amounting to $77,500. 

A beautiful lot in Woodlawn cemetery was procured 
for the association through Mr. McBurney' s efforts, and 
was part of the blessed ministry to young men in which 
he spent his life. Here have been already interred 
several young men for whom, as strangers, the associa- 
tion cared in their last sickness ; and here Mr. McBurney 
desired to be buried. No monument has yet been 
erected on this spot. 

The committee believe that the most fitting memorial 
of Mr. McBurney that his friends and associates could 
provide would consist of — 

First. The complete removal of the floating indebted- 
ness upon the West Side association building, amount- 
ing to $77,500. 

Second. The placing in a prominent place in that 
building of a memorial tablet bearing the name of Mr. 
McBurney and a simple inscription concerning his rela- 
tion to that building and to the work of the association 
for which it stands. 

Third. The erection upon the association lot in 
Woodlawn of a simple and appropriate monument bear- 
ing his name. 

Fourth. The preparation of a memorial volume. 

The committee have accordingly decided upon secur- 
ing the sum of $81,000, which careful estimate shows 

7i 



will be required for the accomplishment of the fourfold 
memorial which has been described. 

William E. Dodge, Chairman ; 
Cephas Brainerd, 
Morris K. Jesup, 
M. Taylor Pyne, 
James Stokes, 
Samuel Thorne, 
Cornelius Vanderbilt, 
Richard C. Morse, Secretary. 
April 29, 1899. 

The sum of money required to complete the 
proposed memorial was happily secured, and 
as one part of it the present volume has been 
prepared for publication. 



/2 



CABLE MESSAGES, LETTERS, 
AND OTHER TESTI- 
MONIES 



The following cablegrams were received as 
soon as the intelligence of the death of Mr. 
McBurney reached association friends in 
Europe : 

From Sir George Williams, president and 
founder of the London association: 

December 30, 1898. 
"British Young Men's Christian Associations send 
heartfelt sympathy. Our loss McBurney' s gain." 

From Messrs. W. H. Mills, secretary of the 
English National Council, and J. H. Putterill, 
secretary of the London association : 

December 29, 1898. 
" Deepest sympathy from English National Council 
and London Central association." 

From Mr. E. Buscarlet, president of the Paris 
association : 

December 29, 1898. 
"Deeply mourning the loss of McBurney, Paris sends 
greeting and sympathy to the New York association. " 

73 



From Mr. E. Sautter, secretary of the French 
National Committee: 

December 29, 1898. 
" Deeply impressed with the loss of McBumey. Weep- 
ing with you. " 

From Professor Edouard Barde and Mr. Charles 
Fermaud, chairman and secretary of the Com- 
mittee of the World's Conference, located 
at Geneva, Switzerland : 

December 30, 1898. 
" Deepest sympathy. Revelation xiv 113. Blessed are 
the dead who die in the Lord: Yea, saith the Spirit, that 
they may rest from their labors; and their works do 
follow them." 



From Lord Kinnaird, vice president of the 
English National Council : 

11 The Young Men's Christian Associations of America 
and indeed of the whole world have suffered a tremen- 
dous loss in the death of Mr. McBurney. We on this 
side join with you in sorrowing that our work has lost 
such a stimulus and our young men such a friend. He 
was certainly a wonderful man and will be terribly 
missed. " 

The secretary of the London association writes : 

' ' Much as the American brethren loved and respected 
him, their affection and admiration could not exceed that 
felt towards him by the many brother secretaries and 
others with whom he was intimately acquainted in this 
country." 

The Editor of The Guide, Glasgow, Scotland, 
writes : 

M Twenty years ago, I gave a letter of introduction 
to two young men on their way to Philadelphia via New 

74 



York. Not long after their arrival they wrote in warm 
words of thanks of their cordial reception by Mr. McBur- 
ney. He talked and had prayer with them. But after 
they had left his room he ran after them to ask if they 
had need of money. They were deeply touched by his 
loving regard. This is only a typical example of the 
reception which thousands of young men have received 
during all the years of his service." 

From a young banker in one of the capitals of 
Europe, who spent the early years of his 
business life in New York : 

4 ' Often of late years have I thought of my good friend 
in New York, Mr. McBurney, who in the dizziness of my 
first steps in New York, took me by the hand and cared 
for me like a father for his boy. What sweet memories 
of pleasant hours spent with him, when he would kindly 
take the trouble to chat with my broken English. We 
used to go together to some very plain restaurant and 
partake of a simple meal. And I am only one of thou- 
sands of young men who have shared in this same good- 
ness of his wide-open heart ! " 

From the secretary of the Stockholm associa- 
tion: 

"His last letter to me from the sanitarium, a little 
while before his death, I will keep as a precious remem- 
brance of this dear friend to whom I owe so much for 
his personal kindness and for the valuable instruction in 
association work which he gave me during my never to 
be forgotten stay in your hospitable country. He did a 
great work and we have suffered a great loss." 

From a missionary in Brazil : 

M For three years my desk in the office of the New 
York association was nearest to his own. I learned to 
know and to love him as few of the other assistants did, 

75 



for those were days of rapid changes in the assistant sec- 
retaryship. As fast as men were trained, they would 
be called to other fields and larger opportunities, and 
Mr. McBurney was never unwilling to yield them, though 
it entailed much additional work on himself. He has 
remained to me the ideal of a Christian worker. There 
may be other counselors as wise as he was, as brilliant 
organizers, as efficient administrators and as loyal lead- 
ers ; but I fear there never will be one who will combine 
all of these valuable qualifications in so marked a degree 
as Mr. McBurney did, coupled with a genuine love for 
young men, as sympathetic as a woman's, as true as steel, 
and as enduring as only his can be who has been planted 
on the everlasting rock and walks in the footsteps of the 
Master." 

One of the international secretaries on the 
foreign field writes from Rio de Janeiro : 

1 ' As one of the thousands of young men upon whom 
the loving interest of Mr. McBurney had a beneficial 
effect, I desire to put on record my sense of personal 
loss at his death. His influence on the lives of the 
younger men in the secretaryship has often been remarked 
upon, and I am one of those who owe much to his kind 
and loving personality. When first considering my call 
to the foreign field, Mr. McBurney' s letters did much to 
strengthen me, and to make clear the path of God's 
leading. Later, when in Kansas City in 1890, I shall 
never forget the day I received a telegram from Mr. 
McBurney from Denver, asking me to meet him at the 
railroad station as he passed through on his way east. 
His kind words, full of a loving, personal interest in me, 
helped me to a decision at the most important crisis of 
my life. When in New York, on two different occasions, 
preparatory to coming out to Brazil, I had occasion to 
profit by friendly intercourse and conference with Mr. 
McBurney. One remembrance I highly prize is that of 

76 



an invitation to the 'tower room,' whose very atmos- 
phere seemed charged with association history and a 
pervading love of young men. There I spent some 
hours in delightful conversation, receiving instruction 
and counsel of untold value to a young secretary about 
to undertake a pioneer work on the foreign field. I shall 
never forget our prayer together in that tower room. 
Later, in the midst of difficult problems on the field and 
altogether isolated from helpful associates or colleagues, 
Mr. McBurney' s letters, as chairman of the international 
committee's sub-committee on foreign work, were full of 
helpfulness, while at the same time the personal element 
in the letters was always of great comfort and encour- 
agement/' 

From Adelaide, Australia : 

" The association board sends expression of its sense 
of loss sustained in the removal of Robert McBurney. " 

From the general secretary of the association in 
Sydney, Australia: 

1 ' Mr. McBurney was a great and good man, who will- 
ingly gave his life and labors for the good of young men. 
Much of the success of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation in your country is due to his great energy, sound 
judgment, and common sense. He will be greatly missed 
and we in this far off land join with the hundreds who 
mourn the loss of a loved friend and brother and yet 
rejoice he has been called by the Master to his reward." 

From the chairman of the executive committee 
of the Maritime Provinces of Canada : 

11 On behalf of our committee I beg to express our 
regrets at not being able to send a representative to the 
memorial services on Sunday next in connection with the 
removal by death of Robert R. McBurney, so long iden- 
tified with the work in New York city and as a leading 

77 



member of the international committee so well known to 
our membership in Canada. What Mr. McBurney was 
privileged to do for the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion in the earlier days of its history is known to few, 
but that the present position of the organization in your 
city and on this continent is in a large measure due to 
his earnest self-denying labors is known to all who are 
identified with the work. " 

From the board of directors of the Hamilton, 
Canada, Young Men's Christian Association : 

4 ' The sympathy of our association is extended to the 
associations of New York city upon the death of their 
late general secretary, Mr. Robert R. McBurney. The 
association world will miss his wise counsel and kindly 
direction. To him the associations owe much for their 
present strong and influential position, and our prayer is 
that God, who in his wisdom removed our brother, may 
raise up another leader to take his place." 

From the association board at Syracuse, N. Y. : 

"The cause of young men throughout this and other 
lands has met with a great loss. We also owe him a 
debt of gratitude for his spirit of helpfulness and his 
unselfish regard for us in our local work. And we desire 
to testify from a personal knowledge of his great worth, 
to the pure, noble and Christian life he has led, by which 
he has endeared himself to thousands of young men who 
have been made the better by his having lived. " 

A leading officer in the New York association 

testifies : 

1 ' His whole thought was the building up of the associ- 
ation, as he believed with intensity and singleness of 
purpose that the association if properly developed would 
prove a most elevating influence upon the lives of young 
men, as well as a most powerful help to the church of 

78 



Christ. He never allowed his social duties or pleasures 
to interfere with his work for the association. By day 
and in the evening, and sometimes far into the early 
morning, he toiled at the task he had set before himself. 
He took few and brief vacations and always seemed to 
be restless and unhappy until he returned to his labors. 
His biography is therefore written in the history of the 
association." 

From one who was associated with him in the 
work of his office : 

4 ' When our three dear children died of diphtheria sud- 
denly in 1877, he supervised the arrangements for the 
funeral and showed us a sympathy and gave us a help- 
ing hand that time nor distance can blot out of our 
memory. He has left an inspiration to every one who 
knew him intimately. His acts, methods and personality 
are indelibly impressed on my heart and mind. Though 
seventeen years have passed since I spent those thirteen 
years with him in association work and though we have 
not met during this period, I seem to see him to-day more 
plainly than ever. I have never had a better friend, 
counselor and brother." 

From a director of the New York association : 

"No one can ever cope with him in the extraordinary 
winsomeness and sweetness of his character. My first 
impression never changed. In all my dealings with him 
I never saw one like him in genuine unaffected worth." 

From a pastor in New York : 

• * I shall always cherish the memory of that great and 
strong man of God — my more than friend — Robert R. 
McBurney — of whom may be said that which is inscribed 
upon the memorial of 4 Chinese Gordon ' in St. Paul's 
cathedral, London, ■ He gave his substance to the poor; 
his strength to the weak; his sympathy to the suffering; 
his heart to God.'" 

79 



From a former vice president of the New York 
association : 

1 ' I have been associated with that exemplary Christian 
and talented organizer for a long term of years. Mr. 
McBurney's death comes to me as that of a brother. If 
it may be said of any one that he has gone to his reward, 
it may be surely said of him. " 

From a former associate in the secretarial office 
of the New York association : 

" There are many who have known Robert McBurney 
longer but few who have worked side by side with him 
more years than I did. As I think of those years I 
realize how much I owe to him for his example of 
humility and personal devotion to unattractive men, 
for his love for the Bible and skill in its practical appli- 
cation to men's needs, for his frank criticisms, sound and 
wholesome if not always agreeable, and for most loving 
and generous kindness to me and mine at trying hours 
in our family life. We who are left must dedicate our- 
selves afresh to that work for young men in which he has 
so long been our leader." 

From a teacher and trainer of secretaries : 

" I was a young secretary at the secretaries' conference, 
without training, greatly impressed with the knowledge 
and dignity of the great men in the work, wanting to 
inquire but not willing to be heard. Mr. McBurney 
insisted that the older men should not occupy all the time 
but that the secretaries new in the work should have 
plenty of time to ask questions or even talk. He was 
such a friend of the younger men. He was determined 
that they should grow, and seemed to lose himself in the 
very endeavor to make this possible. I loved the man, 
and though never associated with him personally, his life 
had a marked influence on mine." 

80 



One of his associates writes as an eye-witness of 
his daily work : 

"Young men were quick to learn how genuine and 
sincere was his sympathy, how spontaneous his gener- 
osity, how keen his insight, how wise his judgment, and 
they could not long resist the power of his love. He 
seemed bound to know what this boy did yesterday, what 
he was going to do next, to learn by close inquiry his 
needs and to supply them as a father would. To be sure 
he never saw him before, but here he was; — that was 
enough. The greater the boy's need, the deeper was his 
interest. He would often follow a young man to the 
door and beyond, as if he could not bear him out of his 
sight. Why ? Because he was only a lad and a stranger 
in this great city. Toward such his heart was ever 
yearning. " 

One of the leaders in the Student Settlement 
Work in New York writes: 

" In Mr. McBurney's death I realize the loss of a per- 
sonal friend. I remember well meeting him first on the 
occasion of a visit of his to Yale, made during my fresh- 
man year. The respect which I conceived for him at 
that time has ever remained. During my college life and 
afterwards, including the last year, I often went to him 
for counsel and always found him wise, courageous and 
helpful. Intelligence fired by steady conviction impressed 
me as his most remarkable characteristic. All of us who 
admired his spirit must feel that an added responsibility 
is placed upon us to work harder for righteousness and 
godliness in this city because his strong influence has 
departed, except as those who have felt his spirit give 
worthy expression of it." 

A leader for many years in the student associa- 
tion work in the south writes : 
"How vividly I recall my first meeting with our ever 

81 



loving friend, Robert McBurney, at the international con- 
vention in Atlanta in 1875. But for his cordial greeting 
and hearty welcome I would have continued to feel out of 
place as I did at the beginning of the convention, and 
would have returned home without a further thought or 
care for the association movement. To his inspiration 
is due any development in the college work which I may 
have initiated or sustained." 

A very aged man writes: 

" His kindness of heart was inexhaustible. He always 
impressed me as being deeply and truly religious, and 
was so morally clean and spiritually pure that it was a 
privilege and pleasure to have one's soul close to his. He 
was refined, gentle, winning, and yet thoroughly manly. 
At my age, over eighty years, I have admired a number 
of men, but I loved Mr. McBurney. During nearly 
twenty years' service under him I came to know him 
well, saw and studied his nature; in fact, this great 
quality of manliness was mirrored in his face. I never 
shall forget his greeting in the morning, it was like a 
benediction that lasted the whole day. " 

From a former president of the international 
convention : 

4 • He was a useful man, wholly given over to the pur- 
pose for which God designed him. Of him, as of David, 
it may be truthfully said: *He served his own genera- 
tion by the will of God. ' He was a sincere man, trans- 
parent and free from sham ; he actually was just what 
he professed to be. He was a man of stability and 
therefore strong; nothing was permitted to divert him 
from the definite purpose which shaped his course of life. 
Because of these characteristics his life was beautiful, 
with a beauty not of mere ornamentation, but with the 
natural and proper crown to the superstructure of gold, 
silver and precious stones he reared in life upon the 

82 



broad and secure foundation laid for him in Jesus Christ, 
whom he loved and served. " 

Another leader in the American association 
work writes : 

'•Mr. McBurney's life has been a benediction to every 
man who has come in contact with him. Manly, noble, 
fearless, pure, tender, strong, and loving, his life has not 
been lived in vain. Men throughout the world are under 
a debt of gratitude to him. He has wrought his life into 
theirs. He has brought a supplemental force and power 
to struggling lives. His plan, his purpose, his mind and 
heart have been wrought into constitutions, principles 
and moving powers of a great organization which is now 
at work in nearly every centre of young men in the civil- 
ized world." 

A physician in New Jersey, who was in 1866 a 
medical student in New York, writes : 

11 1 came across a few days ago the original draft of a 
constitution that he and I as a committee drew up in the 
winter of 1865-66 for the ■ Medical Students' Union.' It 
is mostly in his handwriting. He was always reaching 
out his hand of help toward young men and I think he 
originated this movement — possibly the beginning of 
association work among students in New York City. I 
was called home by sickness about that time and did not 
return that winter, so did not follow up the work" 

From a pastor in Ohio : 

"With an acquaintance numbering among the thou- 
sands, I do not think there lives the man who knew him 
who would not have a kind word to say about him or 
some tender recollection to relate. I have seen him 
empty his bureau of his best clothing for an apparently 
worthless, drunken tramp, and spend his last cent of 
ready money upon him. His was truly a great heart. 
He could see and love the soul hidden in the drunken sot " 

83 



From a secretary in a southern city : 

•'When I came to New York in 1888, he seemed at 
once to take a personal interest in me, and if I have been 
of any service to the association cause, it is largely due, 
under God, to the thoughtful, loving kindness shown 
me by Robert McBurney, not only in those early days of 
my association experience, but also to the very end of 
his life. " 

A secretary of twenty years' experience testi- 
fies: 

"The first time I ever met Mr. McBurney was as a 
delegate to a state convention. He asked me up to his 
room, and his talk with me gave me great pleasure. He 
was very kind, and I think the reason was that I was 
unknown and obscure. That is a reason somewhat dif- 
ferent from the one which attracts many of us to others. 
Since then we have been closely associated for many 
years. Not long before his sickness I was walking with 
him in New York after a church service and I saw a sud- 
den light come into his face as he met a young man, a 
student from Canada who was just going home to visit 
his friends. I never saw Mr. McBurney quite so happy 
as when he was greeting somebody who was away from 
home. I remember vividly what he said that day turning 
to me as we left his friend: ' That young man is going 
to his earthly home, but I am going to my heavenly 
home very soon. ' He seemed to know it even then." 

Another secretary, equally as long in the work : 

"Mr. McBurney was a great man. He was great by 
nature; he was greater far by grace. Yet the finest 
thing about him was his simplicity and modesty. He 
was never spoiled by success or flattery. He was the 
most natural man I ever knew in my life. He had large 
business responsibilities resting upon him — larger than 
those of any local secretary in this country. Yet so full 

84 



was his spiritual life that they never checked it. The 
high function of the general secretary as a spiritual 
leader of young men he felt should never be delegated 
into other hands. He magnified his office. He illus- 
trated it and made it honorable. He was supremely a 
spiritual worker. He was in his office to lead men to 
Jesus Christ. He could not be institutionalized. In the 
midst of all his varied activities he remained ever the 
warm, sympathetic, devoted, successful, personal worker, 
Bible teacher and spiritual leader." 

An eminent clergyman, who was for some years 
associated with him in the office of the New 
York association, writes: 

"Robert R. McBurney was my most intimate friend 
for thirty years and I loved him as a brother loves. He 
mastered the lessons of love and put the courage that 
hopeth all things into thousands of hearts. To those 
who loved him the world will always be a richer place 
because of his life, and another deep affection will make 
the life to which he has gone nearer and dearer." 

An experienced secretary writes: 

"Mr. McBumey's helpful suggestions, words of encour- 
agement and prayers for guidance in my first field of 
association effort exerted a lasting influence upon my 
life." 

The president of the St. Louis association 
writes : 

"For twenty years I have admired, respected and 
loved Robert McBurney. Next to his good judgment 
and piety I have been impressed by his gentle and 
thoughtful consideration for those who were young in 
the work. In this he excelled all the men I have ever 
known. The next thing that impressed me was his 

85 



genuine interest in young men. I feel his death as a 
personal loss and I am certain this feeling is shared by- 
thousands." 

A clergyman — one of the many fellow workers 
associated with him for some years — writes : 

" It is not difficult to enumerate Mr. McBurney's excel- 
lences of heart and mind; his wondrous capacity for 
loving men, his fine executive ability, his tenacity of 
purpose, his intuition, almost womanly, in seizing on 
and developing the good which he was so quick to dis- 
cover in others, his great reverence for the Scriptures, 
his delight in social converse on high themes and in 
praying with his friends in the old ' tower room,' which 
is a sanctuary in the memory of so many who knew him, 
his deep loyalty to our Saviour and his never wavering 
hope for mankind through the practical preaching of 
Christ. When God gave me a son I named him Robert 
McBurney, and I have no higher aspiration for my boy 
than that he may resemble our friend in character. He 
was the cleanest man I ever knew. An impure word 
was like a blow. How he rejoiced in getting a man 
away from evil associations, and teaching him by his own 
example, as well as by precept, the worth of purity and 
truth and honor." 

One of the strongest among the association sec- 
retaries writes : 

1 * At my first secretaries' conference I was a stranger 
to nearly every one, feeling lonely and isolated. But 
there was one man there who seemed to take an especial 
interest in me. Well do I remember how he took me by 
the arm and walked me about the streets for a couple of 
hours while he plied me with questions about my life 
work and gave counsel such as one rarely receives from 
his dearest friends. Mr. McBurney was the one who 
thus went out of his way to make the intimate acquaint- 

86 



ance of one who was a stranger. For what a multitude 
of young men has he performed the same loving ser- 
vice ! " 

Another veteran leader among the secretaries 
writes : 

* ' He entered upon the secretaryship without educa- 
tion or experience and grew with its growth in all 
necessary equipment. He began his work as a stripling 
and finished as a giant. He trained with the chief men 
of the association movement at home and abroad in their 
march to victory and fell at the head of the column. He 
denied himself a home of his own to serve with single- 
ness of purpose the young men of his generation. To 
almost all kinds of philanthropic and Christian endeavor 
he lent a helping hand, but the work in which he most 
served the Master and his church was that of the associ- 
tion, and as long as that organization lives and works for 
young men the name of Robert McBurney will be held 
in blessed memory." 

One of his oldest associates in the secretaryship 
writes : 

"He was a master of the principles which underlie 
and promote the life and usefulness of the association. 
He knew the rocks of danger and how to avoid them. 
There was an entire absence of the air of officialism in 
his intercourse with young men. His peculiarities, 
instead of detracting from him, seemed to add interest to 
his personality. He was a man of culture and had read 
extensively. His library was large and well chosen. I 
never heard him in any of his addresses use a single 
word of slang. He despised it." 

The chairman of the international committee 
writes : 

' ■ No single city could circumscribe the field of his 
activity. The problems he wrought out in New York 

87 



became object lessons to the associations of the entire 
continent. His figure and voice were familiar for over 
thirty years in the frequent conventions of our states and 
continent, and his influence was everywhere felt in pro- 
moting the progress and shaping the policy of the asso- 
ciations. All who came in contact with Mr. McBurney 
as a fellow worker learned to love and admire him. His 
life and example are a rich heritage to the entire associ- 
ation movement, and his death has come as a personal 
bereavement to many thousands of those who have 
known and loved him." 

Another veteran in the secretaryship and an 
intimate friend says: 

* ' He was, in the best and highest sense of the words, 
a spiritually minded man; genuinely and sincerely such. 
I never knew any one more so. He exercised the utmost 
charity in his judgment of his fellowmen. Strong in his 
own convictions and character, he had the most humble 
opinion of his own attainments and thus was able to 
bear with patience the weaknesses and failings of others. 
His love and reverence for the Word of God was deep 
and constant, permeating and controlling all his thought. 
Great as was the work he accomplished, greater still was 
the man behind it. It is not for what he did but for 
what he was I shall most miss him." 

Another who had known him many years says : 

4 ' The sweetness that can come into a life of loneliness 
is to me one of the marked lessons of Mr. McBurney's 
life. He came from across the sea alone. He lived in a 
little tower room alone, and even as death drew near 
there was no wife, no brother, no sister, no one of earthly 
kin with him. But through all that life of loneliness the 
great heart of love was poured into the lives of others. 
The loneliness of his own life did not make him misan- 
thropic. It made him philanthropic and his heart was 
ever going out to others." 

88 



A state secretary says : 

4 4 The best time for me to get his counsel during his 
busy days and years was in the morning. I would go to 
his tower room — not too early — and while he was dressing 
and shaving, his mind was free and comparatively unoc- 
cupied. As I reported the work and took counsel with 
him he would often get very indignant and storm about 
the foolhardiness and foolishness of certain people ; and 
yet it would end in his sitting down, taking up his little 
Bible to read his morning lesson, and then praying for 
these very men he had been storming about! " 

One of the strongest and ablest association 
leaders during the past thirty years says : 

44 1 went to my first international convention in 1868 at 
Detroit, as one of a large and strong delegation from a 
leading city of the central west. The proposition to 
adopt the evangelical test of active membership was 
brought up. I had been an active member before I 
became a Christian and I went to the convention to 
oppose the adoption of the test suggested as strongly as 
I knew how. Mr. McBurney heard of this somehow and 
got a member of the New York delegation to have a talk 
with me. They both went over the whole subject with 
me and so impressed all the delegates from our city that 
we stood behind the New York delegates and shouted 
with them and kept still when they kept still ! 

The next year at the Portland Convention I served on 
one of the committees. I met Mr. McBurney in connec- 
tion with my committee work and had a chance to per- 
ceive how it was that he ran the convention. 

4 4 Soon after my return I was inveigled into the secre- 
taryship of the association in our city. I had a supreme 
contempt for the association secretaryship, but I was 
persuaded it was my Christian duty to take it. So I 
took it and did the best I could. 

4 4 Some years later at the opening of another inter- 

89 



national convention Mr. McBurney came to me and 
said that a delegation from one section of the country 
wanted to make their leader president of the convention. 
1 It will never do,' he added, * for him to hold that posi- 
tion here. ' We decided that a delegate, who, while we 
were speaking, was still on his way to the convention 
from another section of the country, was the man for 
president. Now so far as I know, Mr. McBurney, one 
other delegate and myself were the only ones in the con- 
vention who knew this man. But he was enthusiastic- 
ally elected and Mr. McBurney's was the influence that 
accomplished it." 

A secretary for more than twenty years says: 

" My business engagement in a small town near New 
York ended in February, 1877, and soon after I called on 
Mr. McBurney in his office. He greeted me very warmly 
as I came in, but as we have often seen him do, he went 
on with his writing while I went on to tell my story. I 
said: * I have come to inquire what I had better do to 
prepare myself for the secretaryship/ (This occurred 
many years before the secretarial training schools were 
founded.) 'Why,' said he, 'you have not given up 
your business, have you? ' When I replied that I had, 
he said, 'You are a fool.' But when we had talked 
further no man could have been more cordial than he, 
and he proposed to me to go first of all to the Bowery 
branch. Years after he told me that what most 
impressed him at our first meeting was my great awk- 
wardness and how little I seemed to have of qualification 
for the secretaryship. I do not recollect my first meeting 
with him in his tower room. But I have been there many 
times. There was always room for me there when I 
came to town, and many nights I have spent on his 
ample lounge-bed, and shall never forget his conversa- 
tions before retiring and again in the morning and our 
prayers together, for I always felt stronger after praying 
with him. " 

90 



Another veteran secretary with whom he was 
often closely associated says : 

1 ' Mr. McBurney and I often disagreed. I think that 
was one reason why we loved each other so much. It 
used to frighten me to see him come into a church 
meeting where I was going to speak. I never could 
quite account for it, because I believed in his genuine- 
ness and sympathy. But later all this embarrassment 
passed away. I was always impressed with the very- 
deep seriousness of his religious life. I never went on 
an outing with him until some years ago. One reason 
was that neither of us was quite sure it would be agree- 
able ! Finally we did go and I was fearful that as the 
younger man I would find it hard to make it pleasant for 
him. But instead of finding him exacting I found it 
hard to make him appropriate his share of anything; he 
was so unselfish." 

From one of the younger secretaries : 

1 ' I first met Mr. McBurney when I was conducting my 
first boys' meeting in a small city. A man came into 
the room quietly, whom I did not know until after the 
meeting to be Mr. McBurney. I was at once impressed 
with his great sympathy and love for boys by the way he 
got hold of the hands of those little fellows and seemed 
so much interested in every one of them. Later, as I 
came to know him better, I was impressed more than 
anything else with the deep prayer life of the man. 
Dozens of times when I have been in his office he prac- 
ticed and urged praying about the problems in our 
work. Another trait of his was the dispatch with which 
he could get rid of a man when he was too busy to give 
him time. He could shake your hand and shake you 
out of the office at the same time. " 

From another: 
u AsI recall my feelings towards Mr. McBurney when 

9i 



he first began to show an interest in me I can easily 
understand how so many say he was a father to them. 
Not having any children of his own, he made all young 
men children to himself. He saw something to love in 
many young fellows whom you and I would not feel 
drawn to shake hands with or even speak to. He had a 
knowledge of young men's hearts, and a sympathy with 
them beyond any man I ever met." 

A very clever man writes : 

44 1 sat behind him on the train between New York and 
New Haven. A young man sat down in the seat with 
him. Mr. McBurney got into conversation with him. 
The fellow was flippant, but without the least break or 
discontinuance in the conversation they began talking 
about religion in a personal way, the fellow stating what 
he thought and Mr. McBurney telling what he thought. 
After this the fellow was sobered. It was plain to see 
that the older man wanted to be in relation to the young 
man on this most important subject. I understood for 
the first time what genuine, wise personal work is. " 

One of the younger men gives the following 
typical experience : 

44 It was at a conference in New York state. I was 
one of the kids in the work. I knew him well by repu- 
tation, but did not know him as a man approachable by 
us new fellows. After one of the sessions he passed his 
arm through mine and said: 4 Let us take a walk.' I 
was in the seventh heaven. We started out on the street 
that led to the lake. He did not say anything about 
association work but pointed to noteworthy objects. He 
was very observant. Then he switched around toward 
the town. We got into the neighborhood of the china 
and bric-a-brac shops. He went into a store and saw an 
old clock that pleased him very much. I had an idea he 
would buy it if he got the right price on it." 

92 



From a secretary in a large western city : 

* ' I had just entered the work, knowing almost nothing 
about the Young Men's Christian Association and feeling 
my insignificance as never before in my life. Passing 
through New York I visited the Twenty-third Street 
branch not expecting that the general secretary of the 
New York association would pay any more attention to 
me than perhaps to say ' howdy.' I met him, was taken 
to the tower room, was made to feel that he had a per- 
sonal interest in me and that I was his brother. He took 
me to dinner with him that evening and introduced me 
as his friend. From that day I loved Robert McBurney. 
It has been my privilege to meet him often since my first 
experience with him fifteen years ago, and to me he was 
always the same. Never too busy to help with a word 
of advice or encouragement. " 

From another: 

" The last public meeting he ever addressed was the 
young men's meeting at Harlem branch, New York, the 
third Sunday in D ecember , 1897. Throughout the address 
he seemed to feel that his work was nearly done, and I 
shall never forget how he told the story of the gospel 
and pleaded with men to give their hearts and lives to 
Christ. Three or four responded to this appeal and gave 
good evidence of radical change. Through all the ser- 
vice he seemed to desire that every word should count. " 

One in the front rank of veteran secretaries 
writes : 

11 Well do I remember the first time I met dear Robert 
McBurney. It was in 1873, at the Poughkeepsie confer- 
ence and convention. He gave me such a hearty greet- 
ing and kindly encouragement that I felt I had found a 
permanent friend. A few years later, at another con- 
vention Mr. McBurney took me aside and gave me some 
timely advice which at the time appeared rather severe, 

93 



yet ere long I discovered that it was the best service he 
had ever rendered me." 

Another leader in the secretaryship writes : 

"In September, 1881, I went to New York from my 
New England home for the purpose of studying the 
association work in that city while awaiting a definite 
call to a field. My experience had been limited to a 
small town association, but through the persuasion of 
state and international secretaries I had given up busi- 
ness plans and had fully determined to enter the associa- 
tion as a life work. Mr. McBurney welcomed me imme- 
diately upon my arrival in New York and for the first 
time I thus came in contact with his strong personality. 
That evening he invited me to dinner, and afterward I 
accompanied him to a meeting of the managing com- 
mittee of the Bowery branch. During the following 
week he offered words of encouragement and instruction, 
and cheered and strengthened me for the work I was 
soon to enter. I have always felt much indebted to him 
for the inspiration which came to me from his life at this 
pivotal time in my experience; and from that time I 
have greatly valued his counsel and friendship. " 

Another general secretary for twenty-seven 
years writes: 

44 1 recall with so much real satisfaction my first meet- 
ing with Mr. McBurney. It was shortly after my appoint- 
ment as general secretary of a New England city in 1872. 
Time cannot efface the memories of that hour, of his 
brotherly advice, wise counsel and heart sympathy with 
me just entering my life work. We met frequently in 
that tower room during my nine years' stay in that city. 
Then, when the Master indicated my removal to the 
west, as I accepted the call with many misgivings he 
again by his loving sympathy so thoroughly strengthened 
my heart and hands ; and all through these years to the 
time of his death we were close together and an intimate 

94 



friendship grew up between us almost akin to that of 
Jonathan and David. His life, his work, his devotion to 
Christ and the service of young men, were always an 
inspiration to me. Nearly the last letter I received from 
him when his earthly house was failing expressed solici- 
tude for my health and his great and continued interest 
in our work in this far away western field. 

4 4 4 1 take the liberty of enclosing copy of a letter received 
from Mr. McBurney written on the occasion of the com- 
pletion of my twenty-fifth consecutive year in the secre- 
tarial office, not because of its reference to me personally 
but because in every line it breathes the great soul of the 
man: 

4 * 4 So you have become a quarter-centenary secretary. 
Pretty long title ! 

44 4 Your work in your first field placed the association in 
a position of usefulness and influence such as it had 
never enjoyed before, and your going to the west and 
your work there has made you, with God's blessing, the 
saviour of that work. ***** 

4 4 4 While you have served men, you have served them for 
Christ's sake — not for the praise of men but for the glory 
of God. You are loved by our entire brotherhood as few 
men are. I thank God that I have had the privilege of 
being associated with you in the labor of love to which 
we have been permitted to devote the best years of our 
lives. ' " 

A veteran in the state secretaryship writes : 

44 My first acquaintance with Mr. McBurney was in 
1880 at the secretaries' conference held in Chicago. As 
one of the younger secretaries, I did not quickly come 
into intimate acquaintance with him, but our friendship 
grew with the years. His remarkable steadfastness of 
purpose, his whole-hearted loyalty to this work to which 
he had given his life, his burning enthusiasm for the 
association, his constant desire to come into personal 
touch with young men, have all had their influence upon 

95 



my own personal life. I shall hope to tell him, sometime, 
when we sit in the day that has no twilight, of the effect 
of his life upon mine." 

The first secretary of the international com- 
mittee for work among students writes : 

* * The first glimpse I ever had of Mr. McBurney was 
at the international convention in 1872, whither I had 
gone as a delegate from the Hanover College Associa- 
tion. Thane Miller had nominated him for the presi- 
dency of the convention, and urged as a reason for his 
election that McBurney was going that summer to 
Amsterdam to attend the World's Conference and that 
it was very fitting that the American delegate should be 
the president of our convention. Mr. Miller had also 
been nominated for the position. Mr. McBurney stoutly 
opposed the substitution of his name, and Mr. Miller 
was elected. 

" My next meeting with him was in the old international 
office in the association building, which I visited during 
the Christmas holidays of 1876 for the purpose of con- 
ferring with the committee in regard to the proposed 
conference of students which afterward met at Louisville 
in 1877, and inaugurated the intercollegiate movement. 
Our conference was very brief, but he expressed the 
deepest interest in the proposed student movement. 

" Our next meeting was in Princeton the Sunday after 
the day of prayer for colleges in 1877. He and Mr. 
Morse came there by invitation. I had much personal 
conference with them in regard to my life work. I was 
then beginning to think seriously of the secretaryship. 
I well remember Mr. McBurney' s strongly advising me 
to take the theological course which I had been contem- 
plating. I also distinctly remember the strong impres- 
sion he made upon the students because of his knowledge 
of the Bible and his ability to use it in meeting the objec- 
tions of unconverted men. 

" I met him again in Louisville at the time of the organ- 

96 



ization of the intercollegiate movement, but the most 
important meeting I ever had with him was in August, 
1877, at the Indiana State convention. I had been nom- 
inated by the college conference at the Louisville conven- 
tion to serve as college secretary of the international 
committee. He asked me what my plan was for the 
extension of the college movement. I told him. He 
entered heartily into it, and agreed on his return to New 
York to lay the matter before the committee and bring 
something to pass. He did so, and the result was that I 
was called to the college secretaryship in September. I 
shall always feel that his influence in that matter was 
more potent than that of any one else, and that he there- 
fore exerted a determining influence upon the course of 
my life work. 

* ' I have been associated with him intimately ever since 
that time, and never more so than during the years from 
1888 to 1895. He, more than any other member of the 
committee, strongly believed in the foreign work and 
encouraged me at every step of it. 

1 ' It was a great privilege to me when I last sat beside 
him in Clifton Springs to tell him what he had been to 
me and to the work for which I have stood. I was told 
afterward that it was a great surprise to him that he had 
had so dominant an influence in the college and foreign 
movements. I think he rarely realized his important 
relation to the great movements with which he was 
vitally connected." 

A friend writes : 

* ' The manner in which he greeted a young man made 
an indelible impression. It was quiet, earnest, loving. 
The clasp of his hand expressed all this, and no one failed 
to be affected by it. His sympathetic nature won the 
heart of the stranger in the city and made it possible for 
him to be led into helpful associations. Young men 
who had lost hope because of prodigal living, and had 

97 



reached the prodigal's forlorn estate, were lovingly led 
back to a heavenly Father's heart. 

• ■ A young man, a frequent visitor to the association, was 
one evening accosted by Mr. McBurney, who had with 
the keen intuition of his loving nature observed that 
some burden oppressed him. The manner of the young 
man's replies to his kindly enquiries satisfied him that 
the matter was a serious one. He drew him affection- 
ately into his private office and there listened to a 
romantic but unhappy story of a secret marriage, parental 
opposition, separation, despair. His good advice deter- 
mined the young man's course of action and saved him. 

"A gentleman who knew him well says that while 
he had known many men intimately, some of them 
accustomed to carry the burdens of multitudes, he never 
had but one friend from whom he could always ask 
counsel when in perplexity with the same assurance of 
wise and loving help. To him he kept going for advice, 
for sympathy, and as a young man even for financial aid, 
and always with the same result. One felt that he not 
only gave wise counsel but gave himself." 

A friend writes : 

"As an illustration of Mr. McBurney's thoughtfulness 
and interest in every one, however overlooked and neg- 
lected, an incident occurs to my mind that powerfully 
impressed me at the time. 

1 * Mr. McBurney lived in the tower of the Twenty-third 
street association building, in two rooms overlooking the 
city. The living room was thoroughly interesting, filled 
with picturesque bookshelves, curios, bric-a-brac, — a 
thousand and one objects of interest, — and fragrant with 
the spirit of its occupant who thus in more ways than 
one dwelt near to heaven. One rainy day he was in this 
room with several amanuenses and others, engaged in 
correspondence and in preparing the material for the 
association monthly publication. In the midst of the 
scratching of pens and the rustling of papers a little 

98 





% 

J 



district messenger boy who had climbed up the weary- 
stairs from the wet of the street brought in a message. 
As he was leaving Mr. McBurney unobtrusively detained 
him by asking him a few simple questions to put him at 
his ease, and then left his work, laid aside the mantle of 
haste that had before enveloped him, walked with the 
boy around the room showing him various objects of 
interest and the views from the windows, in short, made 
him feel as if he were a real human being instead of a 
mere messenger boy. Such an extraordinary act on the 
part of a busy man, I have never been able to forget. It 
was a simple thing to do, but it serves to show how gen- 
uine was his love of humanity. 

4 4 One rainy evening before dinner I was walking with 
him when we overtook a grocer's errand boy with a basket 
of groceries on one arm and several bundles of kindling 
wood stacked up on the other. At the moment we 
reached him the kindling wood toppled over on the pave- 
ment. It was not in the way of pedestrians, and after 
the manner of New Yorkers, I would never have given 
the incident a second thought had not Mr. McBurney 
said quietly, ''Wait a moment," and gone over and 
helped the boy to load up again. In one way I felt 
embarrassed by his kindness to the boy, as selfishness 
often is by generosity, but in another I bowed my head 
in humble obeisance to the image of the Christ my heart 
beheld. I am sure it is what Jesus would have done. 

' ■ Perhaps one of the most striking incidents with which 
I am acquainted illustrating his unselfishness was his 
refusal at one time to accept from the board of directors 
an increase of salary on the plea that he did not need it, 
being single, and his insistence that the contemplated 
increase be bestowed upon his associate in office, who was 
a married man with children. He gave away his money 
as quickly as it was earned and kept little for himself. 



99 



RESOLUTIONS 



Resolutions passed by the International Com- 
mittee of Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ations: 

At a regular meeting of the committee, held January 12, 
1899, the following minute was unanimously adopted: 

Our committee and the whole association brotherhood 
in this and other lands have suffered a severe bereave- 
ment in the death of Robert R. McBurney, and the com- 
mittee desire to place upon their minutes an expression 
of their profound sense of loss and of their brotherly 
affection and appreciation of the character, work and life 
of their associate. 

Mr. McBurney was connected with the committee as a 
leader from its appointment in 1866. His connection 
with it as an active executive member ceased in 1895, 
but he continued as an advisory member. It was 
on his motion, as chairman of the Albany convention 
committee in 1866, that the present international com- 
mittee was located in this city by that convention. He 
therefore appreciated and had part in defining from the 
beginning the function and work of the committee, and 
during the first thirty years of its history he was one of 
the most active members in its deliberations and conclu- 
sions, in explaining and reporting its work at conven- 
tions, and in taking part in that work on the field of the 
committee's service. It is difficult to exaggerate the value 
of the contribution which he brought to the committee's 
administration and work. During these thirty years he 



was the leading general secretary of the country and of 
the world, for it was during his secretaryship that the 
New York association, through the erection and occupa- 
tion of the Twenty-third street building, sprang to the 
leadership of the associations of the entire brotherhood. 
What he brought to the committee's deliberations and 
action was the result of his growing achievement as gen- 
eral secretary of the New York association, where he 
was settling the problem of the work and function of 
the association more successfully than any other sec- 
retary ; as father and founder of the state work of New 
York; and as leader of the American brotherhood of 
general secretaries which in its annual meetings was 
defining and working out from year to year under his 
guidance the function and qualifications of the general 
secretaryship. Through him, therefore, the committee 
and its secretaries were always kept in contact with the 
forward line of association advance and development. 

But Mr. McBurney was also among us not only as an 
association leader of extraordinary capacity and qualifi- 
cation, but as a brother beloved for his own sake, full of 
consecration to this work in Christ's name, and full also 
of the spirit of his Master. Fellowship with him was 
not only profitable and helpful but delightful, and as we 
mourn his loss we also rejoice in the thought of that 
certain and blessed reunion in a closer fellowship with 
our Lord himself which will prove as unending as it will 
be satisfying. 

Resolutions passed by the New York State 
Committee of Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciations : 

At a meeting of the New York State Committee held 
March 30, 1899 the following resolutions were adopted: 

On December 27, 1898, Robert R. McBurney died at 
Clifton Springs, N. Y., after an illness of more than a 
year. He came to America from Ireland in 1854, at the 



age of seventeen, and visited the rooms of the New 
York city association on the evening of his arrival in this 
country. In 1862 he became the employed superin- 
tendent of that association, a position which soon devel- 
oped into the general secretaryship, the first in the history 
of our associations. 

The growth of the work under his direction resulted 
in the erection of the building on the corner of Twenty- 
third street and Fourth avenue, the first building in the 
world planned and erected especially for Young Men's 
Christian Association use, which became a model for the 
three hundred association buildings of this country. His 
general supervision of the New York association con- 
tinued until his death, at which time it included sixteen 
branches and ten buildings. 

Mr. McBurney was a leader in the association work of 
the whole world. In 1866 he called the first convention 
of the associations of this state, from which our state 
work has grown. He was a member of this state execu- 
tive committee for over thirty years, rendering incalcu- 
lable service in the development of our associations. 
The definite character of our work for young men is 
largely due to his far-sighted and unswerving stand for 
its biblical and evangelical basis. His deep piety and 
earnestness as a personal worker gave him great success 
in his influence over young men. We shall miss his 
wise counsel and his warm-hearted greetings. He was 
faithful in every duty, a true servant of God. He rests 
from his labors and his works do follow him. 

Resolutions passed by the Committee of Man- 
agement of the Twenty-third Street Branch 
of the Young Men's Christian Association of 
the City of New York: 

At a meeting of the Committee of Management held 
February 27, 1899, the following minute was unani- 
mously adopted: 



Whereas, After a long life of usefulness and self- 
sacrifice for the young men of New York and the world, 
Robert R. McBurney has been called to his eternal home 
by Almighty God, and 

Whereas, Mr. McBurney was from the beginning 
most closely identified with the Twenty-third Street 
Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, and 
by his frequent presence in the rooms and at the meet- 
ings was a continual stimulus to every one who met him 
to lead a better and more useful life, therefore be it 

Resolved, That we, the members of the Committee of 
Management of the Twenty-third Street Branch, do 
express our great sorrow at the loss we have suffered, 
and be it further 

Resolved, That we strive to show by our lives the 
benefit that we have derived from our contact with Mr. 
McBurney, forgetting ourselves and trying to do for 
others. 

Charles A. B. Pratt, 

C. W. McAlpin, 

J. Edgar Leaycraft, 

Committee. 

Resolutions passed by the Literary Society of 
the Twenty-third Street Branch : 

Whereas, Robert R. McBurney, for nearly forty years 
general secretary of the Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ation of the city of New York, and not only ex-officio 
member of the Literary Society of the Twenty-third 
Street Branch but also by personal choice a charter 
member thereof, has, in the providence of God, departed 
this life ; and 

Whereas, As an earnest, active and enthusiastic friend 
of the Literary Society and of the individual members 
thereof, as well as by his personal uprightness and integ- 
rity and his deep interest in young men in general, he 
has both merited and received our affection and esteem ; 
therefore be it 

103 



Resolved, That in his death the Literary Society of the 
Twenty-third Street Branch has experienced the loss of a 
sincere and trusted member, friend and counsellor, one 
who was at all times ready and willing and efficient to 
advance the best interests of the Literary Society and of 
its members ; 

Resolved, That in common with all who are interested 
in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association we 
sorrow under the loss which his decease has occasioned, 
while we rejoice with them in the rich heritage of char- 
acter, good deeds and beneficent influence which he has 
left behind him. 

William George Greene, 

Recording Secretary. 

Resolution passed by the Managing Committee 
of the Boys' Department of the Twenty- 
third Street Branch: 

At the January monthly meeting of the Managing 
Committee of the Boys' Department of the Twenty-third 
Street Branch, the following resolution was carried unan- 
imously: 

Resolved, That the members of this committee, having 
learned with deep regret of the "falling asleep" of Mr. 
Robert R. McBurney, our beloved general secretary, 
desire to express their sincere sympathy and to place on 
record their sense of the great loss sustained by the boys' 
departments and the association, not only in this city but 
throughout the world, through the demise of our true 
friend and brother, whose place it will be impossible to 
fill in the hearts and affections of the members of the 
New York City Association. 

Harold W. Buchanan, 

Chairman Boys' Department. 
Guy C. Mitchell, 

Secretary Boys' Department. 

104 



Resolution passed by the Committee of Man- 
agement of the Harlem Branch of the Young 
Men's Christian Association of the City of 
New York: 

At a regular meeting of the Committee of Manage- 
ment of the Harlem Branch of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, the following resolution was adopted : 

Resolved, By the Committee of Management of the 
Harlem Branch of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion that we place upon our records a minute expressing 
the deep sorrow of the committee at the recent death of 
the general secretary of the New York City association, 
Robert R. McBurney. Mr. McBurney's labors in behalf 
of the Young Men's Christian Association are so univer- 
sally recognized as the main cause for the great develop- 
ment and successful operation of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations throughout this country, that the place 
he has filled cannot, we fear, ever be adequately supplied. 
The combination of qualities in him was so remarkable 
and so calculated to equip him for his life work, that it 
seems as though a special providence directed him to the 
Young Men's Christian Association while it was still in 
its infancy. Personally he was beloved by every one 
and the influence of his life will continue to increase in 
strength and importance for many years to come. 
W. S. M. Silber, 

Recording Secretary. 

Resolution passed by the Committee of Man- 
agement of the Students* Club of the Young 
Men's Christian Association of the City of 
New York: 

The members of the Committee of Management of 
the Students' Club recognize the vital relation that 
Mr. Robert R. McBurney has borne to the Students' 

105 



Branch of the New York City Young Men's Christian 
Association from its inception, and know that even dur- 
ing his last illness he was strong in his affection for it. 
His memory will be a constant inspiration to those who 
knew him, and those whom he left behind will strive to 
emulate his example in devotion to the simple teachings 
of his Master and in consecration to the work of leading 
young men one by one through sympathetic words and 
helpful offices to Jesus Christ. 

Herve W. Georgi, Secretary, 



Resolutions passed by the Board of Manage- 
ment of the Washington Heights Branch of 
the Young Men's Christian Association of 
the City of New York : 

At a meeting of the Board of Management of the 
Washington Heights Branch of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association of New York, held December 31, 1898, 
the following memorial resolutions were adopted : 

Whereas, In the order of Divine Providence our 
beloved brother, Robert R. McBurney, has been called 
from labor to reward, and our hearts have been deeply- 
moved thereby ; therefore, 

Resolved, that in the absence of our brother and 
fellow laborer, the members of this Branch and the young 
men of kindred associations will greatly miss the wise 
and helpful counsel, the Christian cheer and sympathy 
of him who was notably and many times their personal 
friend and benefactor. 

Resolved, That our departed brother was endeared to 
the members of this Branch by his presence so often 
with us in our councils and his kindly and self-sacrificing 
interest in our welfare ; that we will ever cherish a pro- 
found veneration for his long and faithful services. 

106 



Resolved, That we tender to the General Board of 
Management our heartfelt sympathy. 

E. B. Treat, 

J. Berg Esenwein, 

H. J. Robinson, 

Committee. 



Resolutions passed by the Executive Committee 
of the Young Women's Christian Associa- 
tion of the City of New York, January 5, 
1899: 

The Executive Committee of the Young Women's 
Christian Association of the City of New York, in com- 
mon with Christian associations throughout the country, 
mourns sincerely the death of Mr. Robert R. McBurney, 

As one of the ten original incorporators of the associ- 
ation and always on its advisory board, Mr. McBurney 
shared the burdens and responsibilities of the early years 
of the association's history and for twenty-seven years 
sustained an unfailing interest in its work. To his clear 
judgment, wise methods, and rare fidelity, are due in a 
large measure the growth and expansion of the associa- 
tion. 

In grateful acknowledgment of his faithful service, 
and in keen appreciation of the great loss the association 
has suffered in Mr. McBurney's death, the executive 
committee places on its records this memorial minute. 

Resolved, That in the death of Robert R. McBurney, 
we profoundly appreciate the loss to this board and to 
this association of one whose cooperation, sound advice, 
and willing self-sacrifice, through years of patient toil, 
wrought uniformly for the glory of God and the good of 
his fellowmen. His life was an example of Christian 
endeavor and his memory will be an inspiration for the 

107 



young men and women of this and other lands, in whose 
interest and welfare he forgot his own. 

John S. Bussing, 

Secretary. 



Extract from the Thirty-first Annual Report of 
the Evangelical Alliance for the United 
States of America : 

Of the very special loss sustained by the Alliance in 
the recent death of Mr. R. R. McBurney, for so many 
years one of our most faithful members and most useful 
officers, we desire to make special record. His counsels 
were wise, his readiness to give personal labor was con- 
stant, and his faith in Christian cooperation as a means 
of advancing Christ's kingdom, was unfailing. Modest, 
unselfish, sympathetic, strong, he was loved and honored 
by all who knew him. Rarely does a single life admit of 
such abounding toil for the Master, or enjoy the reward 
of such grand results. The history of Young Men's 
Christian Associations in this country and throughout 
the world, is part of the biography of R. R. McBurney. 
His place in the deliberations and activities of this 
alliance cannot easily be filled. 

L. T. Chamberlain, 

General Secretary. 



108 



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